Last Christmas

 Last Christmas 2019

• Director: Paul Feig
• Seen by this director: TV episodes
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Emma Thompson, Michelle Yeoh, Boris Isakovich, Lydia Leonard, Peter Mygind, Jade Anouka, Calvin Demba
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Emilia Clarke –amazingly nothing
• Henry Golding – The Gentlemen
• Emma Thompson – Effie Gray, The Children Act, Alone in Berlin, The Love Punch, Beautiful Creatures, Harry Potter, Nanny McPhee, Stranger than Fiction, Angels in America, Love Actually, Wit, The Winter Guest, Sense and Sensibility, In the Name of the Father, The Remans of the Day, Much Ado about Nothing, Peter’s Friends, Howards End, Dead Again, Impromptu, Henry V, Fortunes of War, Tutti-Frutti
• Michelle Yeoh – Sunshine, Tomorrow Never Dies
• Lydia Leonard – River, The Fifth Estate
• Jade Anouka – Fisherman’s Friends, Doctor Who
• Why? Emma Thompson
• Seen: 25 December 2021       

       There are very few Christmas films I am willing to see but this was written by Emma Thompson, and she plays the neurotic mother here and Thompson is Thompson no matter what. Therefore, here we sit on Christmas Day.

       Kate (Clarke) loves George Michael (thus the film’s title) and has a messed-up life: nowhere to sleep except for quickly-losing-patience- mates (she tends to break precious things) or one-night pick-ups at pubs. She’s a singer who fails at auditions. She works as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop run by a Chinese Santa (Yeoh) who is addicted to truly dreadful Christmas kitsch. Kate has serious problems with her family, refugees from the war in Former Yugoslavia. She has been seriously and should take care of herself but doesn’t.

       Then she meets Tom (Golding), a saintly do-gooder who’s annoyingly fun to be with and who has his own problems.

       The twist at the end was a real surprise. Hmmmm. There’s a tad too much feel-good at the very end but the characters are all quirky enough to carry it. The two leads are terrific, and Golding has the most beautiful speaking voice. This will become a Christmas standard along with Love Actually, The Holiday and Anna and the Apocalypse. 

4 * of 5.