Does this mean it's holiday movie season? What a crock.
I had high hopes for Last Christmas. At least, as high as they could be for any holiday rom com. Penned by Emma Thompson and starring two attractive, skilled young stars, what wasn't to like? More importantly, it would feature George Michael music. I was ready. And as it began with the sort of Hallmark-y girl-tired-of-the holidays Elf-inspired weirdness, I was less irritated than anxious for the good stuff to start. And it never really did.
Emilia Clarke plays an utterly unlikable Kate, former singer and current Christmas kitsch storekeeper in London. She sabotages herself at every turn, and her carelessness alienates her from everyone in her vicinity to the point of homelessness. Michelle Yeoh plays her longsuffering boss and Emma Thompson pops in now and again as Kate's traumatized Yugoslavian mother. Then enter Henry Golding's character Tom, knight on a bike, whose dashing charm and intense emotional intelligence slowly but surely win Kate over. That's not to say it's all roses; no, for all his wit and grace, Tom is very absent, apparently working all the time.
Of course, these days an absent love interest is enough to make any girl pine. Maybe he's got his life together, or maybe he's another Christian Grey. Thankfully, though, the film gets several things right. First, we have an effortlessly diverse cast led by strong women and non-white men. Second, Kate is pitiful and unlikable, but by the halfway point has risen to the occasion of fixing her life and putting things back together even while pining for her gentleman caller. Third, the story slowly reveals the hidden traumas in each character's past, turning the heartache of a figurative "Last Christmas" into very real problems. Kate's heart was transplanted, we learn late in the picture, and ever since then she's felt a disconnect from life.
And for all its positive messages and gorgeous chemistry between the leads, the film is nearly impossible to get into. Perhaps this is characteristic of Paul Feig's films; I certainly haven't seen any of his comedies, though A Simple Favor was one of my favorites last year. But in this, the quick editing and bumpy screenplay force uncomfortable laughs in awkwardly while attempting to cover lots of dramatic ground. It doesn't give us emotional footholds in the characters until far too late to care, and a final bizarre twist in the narrative ruins any chance this story could have had at inspiring change or hope or even -- dare I say it -- love. It takes the self-help and community-building beauty of A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life and shoves it into a bank of dirty slushy snow.
P.S. There is so little audible George Michael music in this flick, it's not even worth watching for the soundtrack.
No comments:
Post a Comment