Review: Ensemble comedy 'Friendsgiving' is a turkey, all right — too many funny people with not enough funny material

Overstuffed, overcooked and indigestible, the ensemble comedy “Friendsgiving” is a prime example of what happens when a novice filmmaker calls in too many favors without a clear plan for how to use them.

It’s Thanksgiving in Los Angeles, and Abby (Kat Dennings) is looking forward to a quiet holiday with her best pal, Molly (Malin Akerman), a movie star, and Molly’s year-old son Eden. Molly’s in the middle of a divorce, and Abby is still nursing being dumped the previous January by her first girlfriend — who, according to her Instagram, is engaged to a “sugar dyke.” So Abby has more reason than usual for a no-stress Thanksgiving.

Arriving at Molly’s house, though, Abby finds Molly is also entertaining her rebound boyfriend, the frequently shirtless Jeff (Jack Donnelly), who’s now also invited to dinner. Then their other gal pal, Lauren (Aisha Tyler) calls, saying that their family’s Thanksgiving plans have fallen through — so now Lauren, her husband Dan (Deon Cole), and their two kids are added to the mix.

But wait, there’s more. Helen (Jane Seymour), Molly’s free-swinging Swedish mom, arrives unannounced — and brought with her one of Molly’s old boyfriends, Gunnar (Ryan Hansen). Molly’s horndog agent, Rick (Andrew Santino), also joins the party, with his trophy wife, Brianne (Christine Taylor), who seems to have her jaw wired shut, for no adequately explored reason.

There also are three young lesbians, each invited along as a possible new love interest for Abby, and each introduced by their Tinder profiles. And there’s another acquaintance, Claire (Chelsea Peretti), who has recently become a shaman — or, as she prefers, “shawoman.”

Put all of these one-note characters around the same table and what do you get? A mess.

Writer-director Nicol Paone has the germ as a good idea here: To explore the endurance of Abby and Molly’s friendship, even when strained by external forces, as well as Molly’s single motherhood and Abby’s struggles as a late-blooming lesbian. One wishes Paone, on her first feature, had stuck to that idea, and not let it get buried in so many nonessential players.

With usually funny people like Akerman and Dennings in the lead, and reliable comic talents in support — besides Tyler, Taylor and Peretti, there’s a bit where Abby meets her “fairy gay mothers,” played by comedians Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho and Fortune Feimster — you’d think there would be gales of laughter. Unfortunately, the only laughter heard during “Friendsgiving” are from the cast in the outtakes over the closing credits. At least somebody had fun.

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‘Friendsgiving’

★1/2

Opens Friday, October 23, in select theaters; streaming as a VOD rental starting Tuesday, October 27. Rated R for crude sexual content throughout, and for drug use. Running time: 96 minutes.