Little Faith: Clarke, Golding, and George Michael's songs can't overcome strained cutesiness and bizarre narrative in "Last Christmas"

Last Christmas (2019)

102 min.
Screened on November 5, 2019 at Landmark's Ritz East in Philadelphia, PA

Release Date: November 8, 2019 (Wide)

A lot of Christmas-set movies are Dickensian, putting their own spin on “A Christmas Carol,” but “Last Christmas,” inspired by George Michael’s Wham! song and taking the lyrics quite literally, is the most Michaelian. If only the soundtrack were in the service of a more enchanting film. Director Paul Feig (2018’s “A Simple Favor”) and screenwriters Emma Thompson and Bryony Kimmings go out of their way to forge a Brexit-like subplot for topicality into a treacly holiday romantic-comedy flowing with trainwreck-becomes-a-better-person clichés and then a bizarre, emotionally manipulative plot twist that doesn't come off the way the filmmakers intended. Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, and some of the supporting cast members aren’t without their charms, but everything surrounding them is cornball, strained and saccharine.

Katarina (Emilia Clarke), now going by “Kate” after her family emigrated from Yugoslavia, is an unreliable, scatterbrained mess. After a near-fatal illness, she skips her doctor appointments, eats poorly, and drinks like a fish. Kate is also practically homeless, running out of friends’ couches to sleep on in London because she refuses to go home to her high-strung mother, Petra (Emma Thompson). She was never able to fulfill her dream as a singer and botches the occasional audition, so now Kate works as an elf at a year-round Christmas shop run by “Santa” (Michelle Yeoh), but even her second chances are running low there. One day, Kate has a chance encounter with Tom Webster (Henry Golding), a charming, whimsical mystery man who seems too good to be true and works at a homeless shelter. They share dreamy walks at night together, but Tom doesn’t carry a phone and Kate just has to wait until running into him again. Kate might still be in the process of getting her act together, and maybe falling for Tom can help her with that.

Something about “Last Christmas,” aside from the George Michael-heavy soundtrack that includes “Faith” and “Freedom! ’90,” feels flat and just off from the very beginning. The tone is set to be delightfully wacky and cutesy, but the would-be crackling banter doesn’t land and the editing between reaction shots feels spazzy. Once Kate and Tom meet cute, the film remains pleasant enough and mildly likable without ever truly working due to a script that could have used a tighter focus and a less insane resolution to it all. Smack-dab in the middle of the film is an honest, poignant moment, pertaining to the wedged-in refugee-crisis subplot, in which Kate welcomes a couple of immigrants who have just been called out by a xenophobic London man on a bus. The callous relationship between Kate and her more put-together sister, Marta (Lydia Leonard), who’s been living with a woman who is actually her girlfriend and not just a roommate, also gets a nice payoff. And then there is the film’s big plot revelation that will be blatantly predictable to anyone paying attention and then threatens one’s eyes to roll. Of course, everything fixes itself due to Kate’s big Christmas fundraiser at a homeless shelter, where she invites everyone in the film (including a realtor whom she only met once) to watch her perform the titular song.

Cast Candace Cameron-Bure and any conventional hunk—and spend less on the music budget—and “Last Christmas” could have easily aired on the Hallmark Channel. Emilia Clarke (2016’s “Me Before You”) doesn’t always convince as a hot mess of a human being, but she’s adorable anyway, even as it takes a while for Kate to endear and undergo her arc toward being selfless. Henry Golding (2018’s “Crazy Rich Asians”) effortlessly puts the charm on as the fanciful Tom, but the role is barely-there when he’s just a device to help with Kate’s redemption. Emma Thompson, who’s also involved in front of the camera, is sporadically funny in full-on Yugoslavian caricature mode as Kate’s mother Petra, and Michelle Yeoh has a couple of amusing moments as “Santa,” who gets her own strange romantic subplot. Some of the supporting players and cameos are a pleasure, too, like Broadway pro Patti LuPone in one wonky scene as a shopper looking for baby Jesus statues. Try as it might to be winsome and whimsical, “Last Christmas” is schmaltz that just doesn’t earn our heart.

Grade: C