The sequel to last year’s breakout hit covers much of the same material as its predecessor, only with less less humour and more forced sentimentality. Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn (once more the standout) return for more shenanigans, this time with their own mothers pitching up in the run up to Christmas, each of them bringing their own baggage to be worked through. There’s not much new here, the script chopping fleetly between arcs as the days count down and tempers mount. It results in a film that’s all over the place and too much, yet not of anything substantial. None of the relationships – bar perhaps the one between Amy and her controlling mother, played with panache by Christine Baranski – has the time, nor depth required. But when the film lets loose and allows the three central women to have fun together while, for example, ripping through a shopping mall at breakneck speed, it has flickers of hilarity that are, unfortunately, all too fleeting.
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