It’s a bit early for “Deck the Halls” and “Jingle Bells,” but the festive trailer of Paul Feig’s 2019 romantic comedy “Last Christmas” will make you want to throw on your Santa hat and curl up with a mug of hot chocolate. The film offers more than the holiday cliches its trailer promises, making it far more intriguing than your typical winter-themed movies. And while there are plenty of hijinks to go around, “Last Christmas,” written by Emma Thompson, is less a holiday movie and more a tale of forgiveness and growth that happens to be set during the holiday season. “Last Christmas” falls flat at some points but is refreshing because it throws many rom-com cliches out the door in favor of a more poignant and more compelling Christmas story.
Former “Game of Thrones” actress Emilia Clarke stars as the unlucky, disgruntled Kate, a Christmas store worker whose excessive drinking and series of bad decisions leave her cynical enough to punch a reindeer, literally. Kate is not quite homeless, but she is troubled by her past with a mysterious illness and too ashamed of her disposition to reconcile with her mother, Petra (Thompson), or her sister, Marta (Lydia Leonard). She crashes on friends’ couches and hangs onto her job by a thread after consistently arriving late and neglecting her professional duties. When she meets Tom (Henry Golding), a cheerful young man brimming with aphorisms, Kate begins to ascend the steep hill of recovery from her past trauma and learns the value of each day she is living.
“Last Christmas” is, simply put, funny. Clarke’s radiant personality shines through as she stumbles around London in a leopard-print coat and elf shoes after being kicked out of various friends’ houses. Kate does not handle herself with much poise or grace, but that is precisely what makes Clarke’s performance so charming. Kate is unlucky, but well-meaning enough to convince the audience to root for her, even though she unknowingly sleeps with a man who has a girlfriend and accidentally fries her friend’s pet fish. Kate’s boss at the Christmas store, known as Santa (Michelle Yeoh), comes equipped with lots of sarcasm and eye rolls, while Petra, a well-intentioned but suffocating Yugoslavian immigrant with a penchant for singing rather atrocious lullabies, steals scene after scene.
As funny as the film is, it fails in the romance department. Golding’s Tom, though likable, is far too perfect to be realistic. Tom relentlessly tails Kate, eager for her affection, and while this is supposed to be endearing, it ends up coming off as rather pathetic, considering Kate does not return Tom’s affections in the slightest at the beginning of the film. Every word Tom speaks sounds scripted and syrupy, as though he swallowed a romance novel. One can’t help but wonder whether anything he says is truly genuine. From insisting Kate “look up” (he doesn’t use a cell phone, a detail that makes him even more unrealistic) to selflessly volunteering at the local homeless shelter, it is a wonder whether Tom is simply an annoyingly cheerful person or just a caricature of perfection. While the relationship between Kate and Tom is sweet at times, it is difficult to call their interactions “romantic” when Tom’s character feels so contrived. And while the tired trope of an infallible male hero rescuing the damsel in distress may be more acceptable in a typical Christmas movie, it feels out of place in a film that’s less about infallibility and more about recovery from traumatic experiences.
While the romance between Kate and Tom is unfulfilling, “Last Christmas” does have other selling points beyond the humor infused throughout. The film brings attention to several important issues facing the world today and does so in a tactful manner. The film does not shy away from discussing feminism, immigration, homosexuality or mental health, and manages to slide these discussions into scenes in ways that don’t seem forced. Kate and her family are immigrants from war-torn Yugoslavia, and this detail is not skimmed over; Kate anglicized her name from “Katerina” and is especially sympathetic toward immigrants since she is one herself. Kate also struggles with her mental health throughout the film, troubled by her past illness and inability to find meaning in her daily life.
Despite the gaudy figurines that make up the Christmas shop and the red and green lights strung up around London, “Last Christmas” is a holiday-themed roadmap to recovery. The film is not quite romantic enough to be deemed a romantic comedy, and Tom is likeable only to the extent that he helps Kate pull through her past trauma. However, the film is imbued with enough comedy and discussion of important issues that it is salvageable. If for no other reason, I recommend watching the film for Clarke’s performance. Clarke’s departure from the world of “Game of Thrones” and her entrance into the far less rigid and far more cheerful world of rom-coms certainly makes “Last Christmas” worth your time.
Grade: B-
