If You've Seen Happiest Season, You Know Who the Real Hero Is: Jane

Published on 12/3/2020 at 1:50 PM

Happiest Season is my new favorite holiday rom-com, and it's not because of Kristen Stewart's broody Abby or Mackenzie Davis's repressed Harper. Those actors may be the names on the marquee, but the real star is the most bizarre member of the Caldwell family: Jane, played with refreshing zeal by Mary Holland. (Fun fact: Holland cowrote Happiest Season's screenplay with director Clea DuVall!)

Jane is one of three Caldwell sisters, and she is . . . weird. She's always around, her love for her family is so intense that you can practically see it emanating from her body, and she has passions and dreams of her own. Jane is fabulous, and though her family doesn't appreciate her, it's impossible not to love her.

Here are all the reasons Jane is the best part of Happiest Season — no shade to Dan Levy, who is clearly the second MVP.

First, let's give props to Mary Holland.

Mary Holland is one of those faces you know but can't quite place. She's been acting in short films and TV shows and lending her voice to animated series for a decade now, but 2020 is by far her busiest year. Including Happiest Season, Holland has 16 projects this year. You might recognize her voice from Netflix's Hoops, Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge, or the Harley Quinn animated series. She's appeared in Comedy Central's Robbie, 2016's Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, and even season two of Amazon Prime Video's dramatic series Homecoming. That's range, folks.

Leads in comedies are often trapped by the expectation that they need to be relatable to audiences, so it's the supporting characters who get to have fun. Holland has the freedom to be as wacky as she wants, and I freakin' love it. A whole movie about Jane would be too much, but sprinkling Jane into scenes here and there is exactly the spice a good holiday movie needs.

Jane is her authentic self, all the time.

Harper is purposely concealing her sexuality, Abby is forced into the unfair position of pretending she's someone she's not, and the whole Caldwell family is bound by pursuit of perfection — except Jane. While still striving to be loved by her parents and sisters, Jane acts how she wants to act. She hugs Abby under the assumption that Abby is an orphan because she's an empathetic human being. She tells everyone who will listen about the fantasy book she's writing, because building the world is really exciting for her.

Perhaps because her parents gave up on her when she went through a biting phase as a child (totally normal, by the way), she was given the opportunity to grow into a person she really likes — and that's awesome.

She just loves fun!

Jane's just here to have a good time, y'all. That's all.

She is obsessed with her family and just wants to love them.

Jane is stoked that her family is back together for the holidays, and despite the fact that the people around her kind of suck (looking at you, Sloane), she wants to be with them . . . all the time. Her sisters and parents give her the bare minimum of attention, but she takes those crumbs and turns them into delicious sugar cookies! Imagine how much Jane can bring to the table when she's actually getting positive affirmation from those around her. (Spoiler alert, but she seems to be thriving in that epilogue, glowing with success and the approval of her family.)

She's totally fine dancing with herself.

OK, so Jane's family constantly ignores her, but she just keeps doing her thing. She'll dance alone at a country club! She'll slide in and hit on a guy who's hitting on someone else! She'll spend 100 hours on a painting of Main Street for a white elephant gift exchange! She's all about spreading good vibes.

She has router skills.

Your printer is broken? Jane can fix that. Router not . . . routing? Jane's your girl. She's constantly running around the house attending to various technical issues, and she's happy to do so. Thank you for your service, Jane.

Jane is an ally.

The best Jane moment comes near the end of Happiest Season, when the illusion is shattered and Harper admits she's gay. Sloane (Alison Brie) reveals she and her perfect husband are getting divorced. Jane, well, Jane has no secrets, but she sidles up to her sisters, looks her parents in the eyes, and says she's an ally. F*ck yes, Jane! She's tired of being overlooked and underappreciated, but this moment isn't about her. She supports her sisters, no questions asked. You go, Jane.