On paper, this movie feels like it was put together by the marketing team at John Lewis. Think about it.
It’s a Christmas movie that’s directed by Paul Feig (who gave us Bridesmaids – hands down the best comedy of the last decade), co-written by Emma Thompson (Oscar-winning screenwriter, genius, and all around Stan-worthy human being), and starring Emilia Clarke (Mother of Dragons), Henry Golding (dapper, desirable Asian), and Michelle Yeoh (the actual Mother of Dragons). It’s set in a snowy, festive London that’s ripped right out of a Richard Curtis movie. And it features the music of George Michael. You might as well cover it up in gaudy gift-wrap and slap a bow on top.
On paper, Last Christmas looks like a winner. But does it deliver?
The plot is this. Emilia Clarke is Kate, a talented singer who now works as an elf at a year-round Christmas emporium. Her boss is a Chinese woman who calls herself Santa. She’s actively avoiding her mum’s phone calls. She’s depressed. She’s selfish. She’s obnoxious. She’s irresponsible. She’s disdainful to everyone around her, including her sister, her oldest friend, and the various men she beds over the course of the movie. And then, a chance encounter with a mysterious handsome stranger – played with equal parts mystery and handsomeness by Henry Golding – abruptly and roughly shakes her out of her self-pity and self-destructive behaviour.
The irony being that the plot of this movie made me think more of Ralph McTell’s Streets of London than it did Wham!’s Last Christmas: “So how can you tell me you’re lonely, and say for you that the sun don’t shine? Let me take you by the hand, and lead you through the streets of London, show you something to make you change your mind.”
The marketing of this movie would have you believe that this is a romantic comedy. It really isn’t. The movie is more A Christmas Carol than Love Actually. Think It’s a Wonderful Life as opposed to The Holiday. This is a movie that uses the spirit of the season as a moral tool. It isn’t about finding true love with a few laughs along the way, it’s about becoming a better human being. With a few laughs along the way.
This is a Christmas movie. And everything that entails. It’s a little bit naughty and a truckload of nice. It plays off tried and tested tropes. It doesn’t want you to think too much, but it does want you to feel everything, not necessarily by virtue of it’s own storytelling, but by all of that Christmas baggage you’re already toting when you step into the cinema.
If I did think about it, I would probably be upset at the sheer laziness of a third act Christmas talent show. I would likely be annoyed at the completely unearned Brexit moment, when a stereotypically white hooligan on a bus screams at a couple to speak English or go home. I would tell you about the big missed opportunity with regards to the music. Because while we are told at the beginning of the movie that Kate is a huge George Michael fan (she even has a sticker of him on her suitcase), there is no exploration of her relationship to him, his music, or his personality. Which is particularly disappointing given the year we’ve had with Rocket Man, Yesterday, and Blinded by the Light.
But I didn’t think about it. Because there was more than enough to enjoy in Last Christmas. Emilia Clarke is so wildly likeable that I completely forgot about her genocidal turn in Game of Thrones. Her Kate is deftly depicted as one part Bridget Jones, one part Sally Albright, and one part Fleabag. Michelle Yeoh is wonderful in her first ever comedic role. And Paul Feig’s breezy comic cadence makes up for the clanging clunk of the movie’s message that life is the ultimate Christmas present. But hey, ’tis the season.
I just wish that people would give Henry Golding more to do in these movies than just stand around looking pretty. But by God, he sure is pretty.
There are funnier comedies. There are smarter romances. There are better Christmas movies. This isn’t any of those things. But it also doesn’t pretend to be. It’s a John Lewis commercial remember. Saccharine sweet and Sunday school chaste. Where love isn’t a sexy romp but a warm comforting embrace. It’s what Hallmark might be if it had a budget. Because it’s objective is somewhat simple and straightforward, to “look up”, to make you like the world just a little more leaving the cinema than you did walking in. I know I did.
Last Christmas
102 minutes
Director: Paul Feig
Writers: Emma Thompson and Bryony Kimmings
Story: Emma Thompson and Greg Wise
Cast: Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Emma Thompson, Rebecca Root, Lydia Leonard, Patti LuPone, Madison Ingoldsby, Ingrid Oliver, Rob Delaney, and Peter Serafinowicz
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