A-Ring-A-Ding-Ding…
By Matt Fowler
Droves of determined “Bill Murray is God” fans who claim to be willing to watch the star of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day in anything are in for a bit of a cheeky challenge with Netflix’s A Very Murray Christmas – a walking-dream style homage to “good hang” holiday variety specials of yesteryear, premiering Friday, December 4th. Stepping in as host/nucleus – like crooners Dean Martin and Perry Como (and many more) have done over a good chunk of the previous century – Murray smartly evokes the “man of the people” pop-in vibe that he’s cultivated over the past few years.
Reuniting with Lost in Translation director Sofia Coppola, A Very Murray Christmas occasionally gives off a similar aura. Trapped in a hotel during a blizzard (NYC’s Carlyle, specifically), Murray starts off despondent over the fact that he’s contractually obligated to play ringleader for a live holiday special in which no stars have arrived. Guests (the first of many) Amy Poehler and Julie White busy around him as frantic producers while Murray prepares to commit TV suicide. And it’s during these first 10-to-15 minutes that the special drags. No coincidence too perhaps, these are the moments that contain the show’s meager attempts at comedy.
Once you get past this hurdle though, the special relaxes into itself and becomes a big booze-soaked musical pal-around. With guests like Jason Schwartzman, Rashida Jones, Maya Rudolph, Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis, and the band Phoenix. I’d say the middle part of this soirée is the best. Just a Christmas Eve laze in the hotel bar with the “work staff” – doing shots of vodka and/or tequila while singing songs such as “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
Rounding things out here is a dream sequence featuring a more elaborate and “traditionally festive” series of numbers with Miley Cyrus and George Clooney (Yes, he sings – a bit. It’s actually quite funny) that stands as the special’s final hurrah. Odd though as it is to have a dream element within a show that already feels like one, but it still works.
As Murray himself slowly warms to the idea of spending the holidays stuck inside a hotel, so will you to the idea behind this special. Especially if you’re not familiar with the sort of soused songfest programming it’s attempting to pay respect to. As mentioned, it doesn’t start off that promising. Essentially, the premise’s “set up” is the weakest part, but once the star himself begins to enjoy himself, so will you.
A Very Murray Christmas is a slight chore to get into, but once it relaxes, unwinds, and has a few drinks it’s actually an enjoyably somber affair. Murray never quite overcomes the “Christmas Blues” he feels at the outset, but that’s all part of the sad sack selling point.
