Happy Christmas…Isn’t

Hollywood likes to make alternative Christmas movies — the more anti-Hallmark, the better. Happy Christmas, an award winner at Sundance a year ago, hits the big screen in late July and it delivers a Christmas message that belies its title. A happy Christmas it is not.

Anna Kendrick stars as a hard-partying twenty-something who, after a breakup, moves in with her brother’s family over the holidays. The tale is one of drunken stupor, sex, and excess throughout:

Happy Christmas revolves around Jenny (Kendrick), an unmoored 20-something aimlessly floating through life who moves in with her older brother, Jeff (Swanberg), her sister-in-law, Kelly (The Perks of Being a Wallflower‘s Melanie Lynskey), and their two year old. Jenny’s arrival throws Jeff’s and Kelly’s existence off-kilter thanks to her baggage train of emotional issues; she dallies with their nameless, pot-dealing babysitter (Scott Pilgrim‘s Mark Webber), and, with the help of her friend Carson (Girls‘ Lena Dunham), begins instigating change in Kelly’s life and career.

Some of this comes through clearly in the teaser; Jenny’s fondness for booze makes her a real handful, whether she’s smoking up the house or just passing out in the hallway. What’s left unsaid are the reasons behind her alcoholism, or what exact impact she winds up having on Kelly (and, consequently, what that means for Jeff). The film doesn’t even run an hour and twenty minutes in length, so Swanberg’s need to play his cards close to the vest is pretty plain.

The movie debuts on July 25th, six full months before Christmas and will be gone from theaters before Labor Day and entirely forgotten by Christmas.