The key to enjoying A Very Murray Christmas is understanding it. A Very Murray Christmas is not a polished finished Christmas special tv production hosted by Bill Murray. Think of A Very Murray Christmas as a post modern meditation on the image versus the reality of fame and celebrity, images of Christmas tv specials contrasted with the reality of those tv specials and the reality of Christmas for the stars involved in those specials while the viewer understands that even the reality is a carefully constructed image for the viewer’s consumption, not actual reality. A Very Murray Christmas is Wes Craven’s Scream meets This Is the End meets White Christmas minus all the terror.
Some of the famous people featured in A Very Murray Christmas are playing themselves in A Very Murray Christmas’ version of reality such as Bill Murray, Paul Schaeffer and Chris Rock. Some of the famous people in A Very Murray Christmas are actually playing characters such as Amy Poehler, Julie White, Michael Cera, Rashida Jones, Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman and Buster Poindexter. Some of the famous people in A Very Murray Christmas are oneiric versions or Murray’s fantasy of what his ideal Christmas special would be: George Clooney and Miley Cyrus. A Very Murray Christmas’ premise is that Murray’s Christmas special is a complete failure because of a snow storm, but he salvages the evening by hanging out with and cheering up the staff and customers of the Carlyle hotel.
If you like Bill Murray’s humor and find Sofia Coppola’s films to be charming, you’ll enjoy A Very Murray Christmas, which is less than one hour. Don’t expect a perfect performance because if you’re not feeling generous, you’ll deride A Very Murray Christmas as no better than Grown Ups or Ocean’s Eleven where a bunch of famous people want to hang out together AND get paid.