Last Christmas
Reviewed by Lisa Sue
I can hear the pitch now- from the director of Bridemaids..starring Daenerys Targaryen & the guy from Crazy Rich Asians! They bring you a traditional rom com - girl is a hot mess where he meets mystery man who makes her want to be a better person and stop feeling bad about herself. SPOILER There will be a major plot twist and in the background nothing but George Michael songs from beginning to end. If you want to really do a drinking game, take a shot every time a George Michael (including Wham!) song is played and 2 shots when Last Christmas comes on. Honestly within the first 7 minutes I heard 2 versions of Last Christmas, clearly these people aren’t messing around. Turns out George Michael really captures the highs and lows of the holiday season,as his music speaks to many of us (shout out to Eli Stone, it was ahead of its time.) With George Michael’s music and a script from the glorious pen of Emma Thompson, we expect we’ll enjoy the ride even if it doesn’t really stick to the Hallmark Formula. For starters both parents are alive, Kate (Emilia Clarke) sleeps with any guy willing to buy her a drink, and she isn’t career driven. In so far as her job consists of dressing up like an elf in a Christmas Explosion store and her “career” is missing auditions. Seriously the store has both a Christmas Gibbon and a Disco Nativity scene, I wish these were made up but somewhere these things exist. Kate isn’t clinging to this job because of the hard work she puts into it, she just needs a paycheck. And after a series of incidents, she now needs a place to sleep.
We get in small doses what happened to Kate about a year before the movie takes place. She was sick, Mom doted on her, and since recovering Kate just hasn’t been the same. Before her illness, Kate was a lovely singer and a real people person. Since her recovery she seems to not be making the most of her second chance, and seems intent on burning bridges with family and friends left and right. Kate might have been somewhat self-centered before her illness but since getting better she has electrocuted pets, burnt Galleons, and let her Christmas Explosion store get robbed. Why do friends and family keep giving her a second chance? As her boss Santa (Michelle Yeoh) explains, Kate was once worth all this trouble which is why everyone puts up with her crap now, but she is quickly using up all her banked credit. And credit to Emilia that she makes this very conceited character appealing enough that we the audience cares what happen to her. Besides emotionally being stunted, Kate isn’t looking after her physical health by eating greasy burgers, drinking way too much and not getting enough rest. The whole sleep thing manifests in her going to sleep while her pregnant best friend is cooking dinner and attempting to have a conversation with her. When she awakes, Kate suggests pizza totally negating all the effort her friend put into cooking the meal and sums up the kind of person she has turned into. Who would have expected Kate was a heart transplant recipient based on this behavior?
Into Kate’s hot mess of a life comes the mysterious stranger Tom (Henry Golding) who simply listens to her problems and gets her to open up. It is through their conversations we learn more about Kate’s illness and her family drama. But Tom disappears for days on end, with no way for Kate to contact him. Tom put his phone up in a cupboard (literally) and hasn’t looked back. He’s able to stop and smell the roses now that he’s digitally disconnected. He takes Kate on walks, showing her things that she’s passed a hundred times but missed simply because she was too busy to look up. They even break into an ice skating rink to help prepare Kate for an audition. And for the first time in a while, Kate is smiling and starting to feel less bad about herself. Sadly no cookie exchanges or Christmas tree shopping in this movie but lots of singing to make up for the lack of other holiday events. But she doesn’t like that she doesn’t know where Tom is, to the point she even scopes out the homeless shelter he volunteers at as well as his secret garden sanctuary. But Kate doesn’t find Tom for days, where does he disappear to? It really starts to bother Kate that she is finally mending her heart, only to feel like she is giving it to someone who will break it.
Which is where the plot twist comes in. I really can’t write about this movie and not mention it, but will give readers one last opportunity to stop reading in case they want to experience the movie without knowing the plot twist. Last chance to jump off…So..as Tom explains to Kate that she can’t depend on him, she doesn’t understand exactly what he’s saying nor why. She makes amends to her sister, the best friend, and the dude who’s fish she fried and is finally feeling up to seeing Tom again. She goes to his apartment, only to discover the big secret. Tom is dead and it was his heart that was donated to her last Christmas. Kate asks what the audience is asking, but Tom was so real to her, how could she feel him? It was because he is a part of her, and “His heart was always going to be hers one way or another” Kate does manage to get back her singing voice through all this, and puts on a talent show at the homeless shelter that brings down the house (guess which song she sings?) And while Kate may not have gotten a man, Santa found love and so did Kate’s sister. Other ghosts found love in the movies Return to Me and Just like Heaven, and in Just Like Heaven I believe love transcended death. Sadly no such luck in this movie. But who knows what life has in store for Kate down the road? As George Michael said just gotta have Faith.
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