movie review last christmas

Last Christmas

It’s that time of year where multiplexes across the nation prepare to serve up Christmas fare as sugary as a cup of eggnog. The love-to-hate-it schmaltz and syrupiness of it all can be pleasant for sure, if the output is something wittier and more starry-eyed than “Last Christmas,” a seasonal rom-com with little romance and even fewer laughs to spare. A shame, as its blindingly trimmed package is shiny enough—directed by the comedy genius Paul Feig (“ Bridesmaids ”), co-scripted by Emma Thompson and Bryony Kimmings , starring Emilia Clarke of “Game of Thrones” and Henry Golding , who left his mark on “ Crazy Rich Asians ” as a timeless leading man. Plus, there is the wall-to-wall George Michael soundtrack, including “This Is How (We Want You to Get High),” a handsome, never-before-released song from the late artist, serving as the pretty bow on top. And yet, what’s inside this gift box feels curiously joyless for what looks to be a foolproof recipe on paper—“Last Christmas” only succeeds in reminding you pre-Thanksgiving that soon it will be holiday shopping time, rejoice!

But if you’re the type who loves to visit year-around Christmas stores in July—like the overstuffed one the frantic Londoner Kate (Clarke, generically endearing) works at—then you might find some magic in “Last Christmas,” however stale. Just don’t expect the card-carrying George Michael fan Kate to be the spreader of holiday cheer here. Clad in an elf costume and matching pointy slippers she might be, but the former chorus girl with dreams of a stage career is more a mess-maker than an organized helper of Santa. And by Santa, I mean a character with a self-chosen name played by Michelle Yeoh (creating what wonder she can with her cringe-worthy part), who owns the shop “Yuletide Wonderful” on a busy, twinkling square of London and expects great things from Kate with a tough, maternal sort of affection. Meanwhile Kate—donned in a leopard coat when she’s not selling peculiar trinkets—keeps running late for work, making bad decision after bad decision, couch-surfing (London circa 2017 doesn’t appear to be a reasonable city on an elf’s salary) and braving her familial problems. Not to mention a mysterious heart defect she struggles with—we learn in bits and pieces that she had recently been taken ill with certain complications and can’t afford to lead an irresponsible lifestyle.

Her family, immigrants from former Yugoslavia, certainly thinks so. There is her over-concerned, guilt-tripping mom Petra (Thompson, bit of an offensive caricature of an émigré) who intensely dotes on her two daughters—the other one being the dependable and disciplined Marta ( Lydia Leonard ), who hides from her parents that she is a lesbian in a stable relationship. There is also their hardworking father Ivan (Boris Isaković), who’s made a good home for his family in London. Still, something seems to be missing from Kate’s life in the waning days of 2017, despite being surrounded by supportive figures she doesn’t quite deserve the sympathy of. Then comes along the mysterious Tom (Golding, making good use of his effortless charms), appearing from out of nowhere, bringing Kate’s guard down slowly and igniting both a sense of kindness and self-worth in her; so much that with Tom’s influence, Kate starts volunteering at a homeless shelter on a frequent basis.

Rest assured, there will be a “ Love Actually ”-esque performance to cap off the romp and a twisty pay-off (albeit, a frustrating one) to conclude its “ Just Like Heaven ” vibe that manages to romanticize sparkly streets of London more than the couple that strolls through them. While “Last Christmas” does a decent job of cozily resolving Kate’s family issues and through Gary Freeman ’s production design, transforming London into a jolly old holiday greeting card, it forgets to build chemistry between its seeming lovebirds, who live inside the lyrics of the eponymous Wham! tune more than they realize. It doesn’t help that neither Yeoh nor Thompson play a character that remotely resembles real people in a film that only brushes over the anxieties of immigrants in the still-early days of Brexit. There will be fans of this intensely rich Christmas pudding—always a better idea in theory than practice—but you might find you’ve had more than enough after only a couple of bites.

Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to  RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

• Emilia Clarke as Kate
• Henry Golding as Tom
• Emma Thompson as Adelia
• Michelle Yeoh as Santa
• Patti Lupone as Joyce
• Brent White
• Bryony Kimmings
• Emma Thompson

Writer (story by)

Cinematographer.

• John Schwartzman
• Theodore Shapiro

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Film Review: ‘Last Christmas’

Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding are the appealing stars of a fairy-tale London romantic comedy that's too precious and contrived to take wing.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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In recent years, the romantic comedy has taken a sabbatical, at least from the big screen (it seems to have adopted temporary legal-resident status on Netflix). Yet it’s clear that one can point to the occasional exception: the puckishly delightful and moving 2017 indie hit “The Big Sick,” or last year’s “Crazy Rich Asians,” which was such an immersive cross-cultural fairy tale of love, class, and global sci-fi-surreal decor that the shimmering romance at its center was just one of its many entrancements. Even in their success, though, you couldn’t say that either of those movies exactly re-opened the floodgates of romantic comedy. So what are love-starved moviegoers to do?

On paper, “ Last Christmas ” would seem to be just what the holiday rom-com doctor ordered. It’s got two terrific stars: Emilia Clarke , from “Game of Thrones,” a wild card of an actress who plays the likably slovenly and messed-up Kate, one of those characters who can squeeze a moment-to-moment ragged exuberance out of how little they have their life together; and Henry Golding , the elegantly charismatic co-star of “Crazy Rich Asians,” who plays Tom, a mysterious stranger who is sweet and gentle and perfect in every way — and is therefore somewhat less perfect than he appears, though we spend much of the film wondering how, exactly, that will turn out to be true.

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“Last Christmas” was directed by Paul Feig, who also directed “Bridesmaids” (the finest romantic comedy of the century so far), and it was co-written by Emma Thompson and Bryony Kimmings (from a story by Thompson and her husband, Greg Wise), so it would seem to have the potential to be the kind of witty sparkling bauble we prize the genre for. In theory, the film has a number of things going for it — a spun-sugar atmosphere of confectionary longing, and the fact that it’s built around the songs of George Michael, an artist who should really be the subject of a jukebox musical (instead of “Jersey Boys,” you could call it “East End Boy,” and it could play for years), because his songs, even if you already love them, have a way of growing with time. “Last Christmas” opens in Yugoslavia in 1999, where Kate (or, as she was known then, Katarina) is singing the lead on Michael’s “Heal the Pain” in a church choir performance, and it’s gorgeous.

The other dimension of “Last Christmas” that feels promising is the fact that it unfolds in a rambunctious Yuletide version of London. In the three decades since the rom-com came roaring back, with the one-two-three punch of “When Harry Met Sally,” “Pretty Woman,” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” the genre, as it went through its ups and downs, was often saved by an injection of British sauciness. It happened in 1994, with “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” and in 1999, with “Notting Hill,” and in 2001, with “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” Sure, Hugh Grant starred in all those films, but it was about more than him — it was about the way that Andie MacDowell, Julia Roberts, and Renée Zellweger found stylish new ways of jousting, playing off that English blend of reticence and acidity, serving up the sentiment with a bittersweet edge.

And yet…as much as we go into “Last Christmas” eager to see a nicely wrapped package of acerbic fun, the film falls short of that. It’s not so much clever, toasty, and affectionate as it is the faux version of those things. It’s twee, it’s precious, it’s forced. And it’s light on true romance, maybe because the movie itself is a little too in love with itself.

Kate, who emigrated to England with her family from Yugoslavia to escape the terrible war there, now works as a clerk in one of those year-round Christmas boutiques. Her boss, played by Michelle Yeoh, calls herself Santa and drops quirky obscenities that the movie presents way too winkingly. Kate is the aggravating and adorable screw-up, who treats the customers like crap and keeps doing things like forgetting to lock the door at night, which allows a burglar to come in and trash the place. (That’s her karma.) But when she spies Tom outside the shop, gazing into the sky (it turns out he’s looking at a bird), she has found someone who can set her straight.

Tom is a dapper dude, so old-fashioned in spirit that he seems to dance when he walks. The two keep running into each other, and he turns out to be the kind of free-spirited, low-maintenance knight — he doesn’t carry a cell phone! he volunteers in a homeless shelter! — who’s like a parody of rom-com gallantry. But as much as I hate to say it, the whole movie plays like an unintentional parody of romantic comedy — it seems caught between flakiness and an out-of-date sort of whimsical sincerity.

Kate and Tom’s relationship consists of hanging out. And talking. And saying goodnight. And doing it all over again. There’s no conflict, no momentum, no dramatic-comedic spark plug. (But there’s a trick the film’s going to spring on you.) One of the ironies of the Wham! song “Last Christmas,” which obviously figures majorly in this movie, is that it became a Yuletide radio perennial even though it’s not really a Christmas song; it just sounds like one. (It’s a George Michael broken-heart song.) “Last Christmas” extends the irony by taking the lyrics so literally that when the movie does its big reveal, you’re not sure whether to swoon or collapse into vaguely annoyed giggles.

Kate, we learn, is such a scattered personality because she can’t stand her family, especially her mother, one of those noodgy Slavic matriarchs who speaks in an accent as thick as goulash and guilt-trips her children the way most of us breathe. Her name is Petra, and she’s played by Emma Thompson, who’s supposed to be so lugubrious she’s hilarious, but the only real joke is that we know, under the trappings, that it’s her. For a movie that comes on like it’s tweaking stereotypes, “Last Christmas” has a distinct tendency to stumble into them — like, for instance, the way it exploits the Michelle Yeoh character’s broken English, or treats Kate’s decision to volunteer at the homeless shelter as a signifier of her enlightenment (how 1980s!). Even a rom-com should have room for a wild feeling or two, but “Last Christmas” is an example of a romantic comedy that just about connects the dots, if not the sutures, to put its heart in the right place.

Reviewed at Bryant Park Screening Room, New York, Oct. 30, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 102 MIN.

• Production: A Universal Pictures release of a Perfect World Pictures, Feigco Entertainment production. Producers: Erik Baiers, Jessie Henderson, David Livingstone, Emma Thompson. Executive producer: Sarah Bradshaw.
• Crew: Director: Paul Feig. Screenplay: Emma Thompson, Bryony Kimmings. Camera (color, widescreen): John Schwartzman. Editor: Brent White. Music: Theodore Shapiro.
• With: Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Emma Thompson, Rebecca Root, Lydia Leonard, Patti LuPone, Madison Ingoldsby, Ingrid Oliver, Rob Delaney, Peter Serafinowicz.

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Last Christmas Is a Mess, But It’s a Lovable One

Emilia Clarke rose to fame on Game of Thrones as steely queen Daenerys Targaryen, mother of dragons, leader of armies, possessor of cascading platinum locks unbothered by even the faintest hint of brassiness. Off the series, however, she’s tended to come across as gleefully unregal, a woman whose expressive eyebrows can conduct entire conversations of their own on her forehead. Until Last Christmas , none of Clarke’s roles highlighted this good-time goofball energy, much less effectively harnessed it. But as Kate, an aspiring singer and current elf-costumed retail worker, the actress gets to operate in a mode that suits her — that of the endearing mess, coasting by on shambolic warmth and you-know-I-didn’t-mean-for-that-to-happen winces for longer than should really be possible.

Last Christmas is a bit of a mess itself — a disjointed jumble of romantic comedy, holiday fantasy, love letter to the music of George Michael, and pro-immigrant statement. Whether it’s as endearing as its heroine is a complicated call to make. The film, directed by Paul Feig and co-written by Emma Thompson (who also plays Kate’s Yugoslavian mother, Adelia), doesn’t aspire to excellence. It aims instead for the reassuringly preworn quality of a VHS tape someone might dig out of a drawer to watch at a family gathering because their uncle still happens to own a VCR. It has a twist so telegraphed that you might wait for there to be another, cleverer one on top of it (you will wait in vain!). It makes no real attempt to pull its many disparate threads together coherently, or to present its London as anything other than adorably twinkly. It is, despite or because of these things, a cozy viewing experience, which means that it’s accomplished what it set out to do and will doubtless be put into seasonal rotation on cable networks as soon as possible.

So: Kate is a rambunctious 20-something Londoner who’s been stuck in neutral ever since an unexpected, serious health scare a few years earlier. She’s been testing the patience of her friends and flatmates with her inconsiderate flakiness, not to mention the owner (a marvelously unimpressed Michelle Yeoh) of the Christmas tchotchke shop at which she works. Her family lives nearby, but she avoids them and their dramas in favor of crashing on couches, and when she runs out of those, trolling for someone acceptable at the pub (which is what she does, with less-than-ideal results, when the movie begins). That is not, however, how she has her meet-cute with Tom (Henry Golding), the handsome, impossibly wholesome, overtly mysterious bike courier she soon finds herself falling for. Tom just turns up outside her work one day, and, like the manic pixie [redacted]boy he is, starts wooing her with tours of the city’s hidden secrets and stealthy forays into closed ice-skating rinks.

It’s not, for reasons both too spoiler-y and metaphysical to go into, the most effective love story. It is a somewhat better one about self-improvement, if only because Kate is such a plausible sort of minor asshole, someone who likes to bemoan all the bad things that happen to her while never considering that any of them could ever be the result of her own actions. Clarke keeps her character just on the right side of applaudable, even when she’s doing things like impulsively outing her sister, Marta (Lydia Leonard), at the dinner table. As Kate’s relationship with Tom grows, he pushes her out of what’s become her comfort zone of carelessness, to reengage with the people she cares about and with the world, steering her toward the homeless shelter he volunteers at. The corniness of it is balanced by how relatively inept Kate remains — when she starts trying to make amends for her own selfishness, it’s not with grand, sweeping fixes but with small, awkward gestures.

Sweet as those moments may be, they’ve got nothing on the most moving element of the movie, the one that also happens to be it’s most jury-rigged. Last Christmas has way too much going on to devote adequate time to really filling out the fact that its central family are Balkan refugees. But it is present underneath everything else going on, from the anglicized name that Kate (born Katarina) insists on going by to the cautious half-existences of her parents. The movie suggests that they were derailed by the trauma of war in a way that echoes Kate’s more personal ordeal, and that they’ve felt too scarred by what happened to them to ever really relax into the lives their now very British daughters take for granted. Kate and her family are not the only immigrants in the film — the London of Last Christmas may be cloyingly quaint in appearance, but it’s pointedly international in population. When Thompson’s character, watching news about Brexit on the television, mournfully places the decision in a larger historical context of xenophobic scapegoating, the clunkiness of how the moment comes about doesn’t matter. Sometimes you just have to let yourself be a sucker for the obvious — whether it’s for a holiday movie, a ridiculous romance, or an awkwardly grafted-on but very timely theme.

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‘Last Christmas’ Review: Ho, Ho, Humbug

Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding star in a flatline of a romantic comedy.

• Share full article

By Manohla Dargis

“Boy Meets Girl, So What?” That’s the title of a movie that Bertolt Brecht thought up when he was exiled in Hollywood in the 1940s. It’s also an evergreen question, one that I crankily mutter whenever I watch another romantic comedy that tries to reanimate a sub genre that’s fallen on hard times, largely because the old orthodoxies about human beings and love — and what constitutes happily ever after — no longer apply. It was apparently so much easier for filmmakers when female happiness meant men, marriage and babymaking.

That helps explain “Last Christmas,” a romantic comedy directed by Paul Feig that presents itself as a classic love story — boy meets girl — while busily rearranging its crucial bits. It does this with a big twist embedded in a lot of cutesy chatter, truckloads of plot, many feelings and even more life lessons. The twist is clever enough, though much depends on whether you see it coming. Whether you do or not (I didn’t), it is a steep price to pay for a movie that advocates tolerance, community and other virtues yet views its audience members as barbarians in need of regular schooling.

That’s a drag because there’s some talent here, beginning with Emma Thompson, who has a showboating supporting role and shares script credit with Bryony Kimmings . Thompson is probably responsible for some of the snappier lines (that’s a reassuring fantasy, at least) and perhaps the sermonizing, too. But it’s hard to know who to blame for the forced and discordant scenes, or the mood-killing casting of Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding as the romantic leads. The actors look good together — never more so than on the movie’s poster — but her character’s strenuous perkiness and his character’s damp sincerity cancel each other out.

Clarke plays Kate, a singer and aspiring musical performer living and scarcely struggling in London. She has a silly job in a Christmas shop where, dressed as an elf, she spars with the owner, a woman who calls herself Santa and is played by an agreeably astringent Michelle Yeoh. Clarke sparks off Yeoh (and Thompson) but they, alas, are not the romantic pair. Eventually Kate meets her designated one, Tom (Golding), a bland smiler who swoops in on a bicycle instead of a white horse and, despite a regular disappearing act, more or less serves a familiar princely function.

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• DVD & Streaming

Last Christmas

• Comedy , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• November 8, 2019
• Emilia Clarke as Kate; Henry Golding as Tom; Emma Thompson as Petra; Michelle Yeoh as Santa; Lydia Leonard as Marta; Boris Isakovic as Ivan; Peter Mygind as The Dane aka “Boy”; Ritu Arya as Jenna; Ansu Kabia as Rufus; Madison Ingoldsby as Young Kate

Home Release Date

• February 4, 2020

Distributor

• Universal Pictures

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

Last Christmas, Kate was dying and had to have a heart transplant. Before she got sick, Kate was vibrant and fun. She worked hard and aspired to become a singer. But after the surgery, something changed. Everyone keeps telling Kate that she’s lucky to be alive, but she doesn’t feel alive.

Kate’s supposed to be taking things easy and getting back to “normal,” but she’s tired of people telling her what to do. They don’t understand how not normal her life is and how lost she feels. She copes with her despondency with sex, booze and lots of junk food—all the things her doctor cautions her against. But if anything, things are only getting worse.

Kate is just about to hit rock bottom (she’s homeless, on the verge of losing her job and just failed miserably at an audition for a musical) when she meets Tom. Tom is unlike anyone she’s ever met. He’s quirky and weird (the guy keeps his cell phone in a cupboard), and he keeps telling Kate to “look up.”

Initially annoyed, Kate gradually finds herself drawn in by the magnetic appeal of Tom’s positive attitude. She starts looking up—literally and figuratively—and realizes that even though her heart healed physically from the illness, it hasn’t healed emotionally. Thanks to Tom’s influence, she stops indulging in self-destructive behaviors and tries to get her life back together.

Kate naturally wants to share this new, healthy version of herself with the person who inspired it. But how do you get in contact with a guy who hides his phone in a cabinet?

Positive Elements

Kate is described by her family and friends as selfish, lazy and “the furthest thing from an adult I know.” She stubbornly refuses to take care of her body and even jokes about dying young like Kurt Cobain. However, after Tom starts to show her the beauty in the world around her, she turns this behavior around. She eats healthier food, limits her drinking habits and stops sleeping around with strangers.

Kate also makes a conscious effort to restore the relationships she’s damaged over the past year, apologizing to her friends and reaching out to her mom, Petra, whom she’s been avoiding since her heart surgery. Kate also begins volunteering at the homeless shelter where Tom works, singing in the street and setting up a Christmas show to bring in donations.

Kate sees Petra as a controlling worrywart. And she’s not the only one: Petra’s husband avoids her during the day, and Kate even asks her dad why they won’t divorce. Those aren’t positive things, obviously. However, both of them know that Petra loves them deeply, if not perfectly, and they make an effort to accept Petra’s annoying flaws.

Kate comforts her mom and a couple on a bus when people are rude to them about being foreigners. She also helps set up a date between her boss (a woman named Santa) and a man she’s infatuated with.

Spiritual Elements

Kate works in a Christmas shop that sells a variety of holiday decorations, including manger sets and menorahs. One Santa Claus figurine holds a Ten Commandments tablet. A particularly garish manger scene features a full-toothed baby Jesus, a smiling donkey and disco music. When a customer is indecisive about which baby Jesus she should purchase for her manger, a store clerk sarcastically suggests buying both and pretending that Mary had twins.

A children’s choir sings in a church. Someone says that God is a woman. Another character says that being pooped on by a bird is good luck. A guy makes a joke about being psychic. A Sikh man drives a bus. “Joy to the World” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” are both played in the background.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Ready for the story’s big twist? Kate discovers that Tom actually died in a car accident the previous Christmas on the same day that she had her heart transplant. In fact, she received his donor heart. It is unclear whether she has been seeing some sort of ghost or if his presence is merely an elaborate construct of her mind. However, after learning the truth, she bids farewell to Tom and doesn’t see him again.

Sexual & Romantic Content

Kate and Tom kiss twice. Kate pulls her shirt collar down to reveal to reveal the top of her heart surgery scar to Tom, who touches it. Kate lies in Tom’s lap on the floor and asks if they can lie down in the bed. He agrees, but then tucks her into bed alone. When she protests, he tells her that this is close enough for now, especially since they hardly know one another.

Although sex is never seen onscreen, it is talked about often. Ever since her surgery, Kate has made a point of having sex as often as possible (often with men she meets on a Tinder-like dating app called “Swiper”). Her reckless behavior in this area of her life has become a point of contention with Kate’s family and friends, who recognize how destructive it is to her. Many of her friends won’t allow her to stay the night because they fear she’ll bring home a stranger. (A fear that is warranted, since we see Kate sneaking a man out of her friend’s house.)

Kate wakes up apparently naked in a man’s bed (though she’s covered by blankets). After the man leaves, Kate showers (where she’s seen from the shoulders up) and finds out that he has a girlfriend because that woman opens the shower to discover Kate instead. (The other woman is apparently wearing nothing but a robe, which is open, though we only see her from the shoulders up as well.)

Marta, Kate’s sister, is in a same-sex relationship with a woman named Alba. Kate points this out to their parents, who are shocked. But by the end of the film, they have accepted their daughter’s relationship, and they’re making lesbian jokes. In a flashback, a young Marta exchanges a suggestive look with another young girl singing in their church’s choir.

A woman is alarmed when she finds a “naughty” dress among her daughter’s clothes. A man sings sans pants outside a homeless shelter. A woman sings a crude and sexually graphic song about sex. Men wolf whistle at a woman changing her clothes in an alleyway. (She thought her friend was blocking their view.) A man puts his hand over a woman’s heart. A brothel is mentioned. Foreplay is brought up. A woman asks if a man is gay.

Violent Content

One character gets hit by a bus (though we don’t see the actual accident, just the events leading up to it). Two people are rushed into a hospital on gurneys. Doctors make an incision on Kate’s chest in preparation for her heart transplant.

A woman drops a running hairdryer into a fish tank, electrocuting the fish inside. A woman’s singing is compared to waterboarding, and someone jokes about wanting to string themselves up rather than listen to it.

Crude or Profane Language

The s-word is used 10 times (including one use in the past tense). “H—” is heard half a dozen times, and “p-ss” is also heard once. A variety of British expletives are used, including “bloody,” “b-llocks,” “b-ggar,” “s-dding,” “tosser” and “w-nker.” Christ’s name is taken in vain six times, and God’s name is misused another 10 times.

Kate’s family debates the correct translation of a certain Serbo-Croatian curse word referring to the male anatomy. Other jokes are made about male and female genitals.

Drug & Alcohol Content

Kate drinks in bars on several occasions and gets drunk twice. She often talks about getting drunk and invites friends to join her, but they decline and caution her to be careful. As she cleans up her behavior, she begins to exercise self-control by limiting herself to just one drink. However, in a bonding moment with her mom, the two women knock back multiple shots at a marketplace, and Petra coughs at the strength of the liquor. Kate buys her sister an expensive bottle of wine as a peace offering.

Other Noteworthy Elements

When Kate forgets to lock the store one night in her urgency to get to an audition, the store is robbed. When talking to the police, she doesn’t confess that detail, thus allowing them to assume it was a typical break-in. Later, Kate’s boss tells her that she knows Kate forgot to lock up because she found the door wide open. She broke the window herself because she knew that if it didn’t look like a break-in, she wouldn’t get any insurance money, and she berates Kate for “forcing” her to break the law.

Kate and Tom break into an ice rink to practice for an audition. Kate gets distracted while she’s supposed to be monitoring food at the homeless shelter and as a result, several men come by the table and steal food. Kate lies to her doctor about eating healthily and avoiding alcohol.

A man screams at a couple on a bus to go back to their own country when he hears them speaking a different language. Casting directors for a play are rude to Kate when her audition goes poorly, commentating negatively on her performance. Another group of casting directors mocks her as well. A woman outside the homeless shelter tries to get people to come to a Christmas show by screaming profanities at them. Kate pretends to be the KGB to get her mom to open the door to their house.

A bird defecates in a woman’s eye. Someone trips into a pile of rubbish.

Last Christmas tells the sweet story of how a woman struggling with depression (and self-loathing) learns how to heal her heart. However, prior to her redemption, many of Kate’s actions are anything but sweet.

Kate is mean and selfish. And if it weren’t for the jolly and pure soul of Tom, she likely would have wasted the heart that was donated to her by dying young from self-neglect. And while Kate eventually reins in most of her wanton, self-destructive behavior, her tongue remains as sharp as ever, right up to the end.

Despite this, Kate does learn a valuable lesson—one that she tries to impart to others: “Helping each other is what makes us happy.” That’s a pretty nice moral in a film that isn’t always quite so nice.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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Last christmas.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 11 Reviews
• Kids Say 21 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Musically inspired romcom has big heart; language, innuendo.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Last Christmas is a holiday romcom that centers on Kate ( Game of Thrones ' Emilia Clarke), who survived a life-threatening illness and now shows signs of depression. She engages in reckless behavior -- drinking too much, acting irresponsibly, and hooking up for casual sex …

Why Age 13+?

Kate is sexually assertive and has casual sex with men she meets in bars or via

"S--t" used frequently. Also, sexual terms like "d--k," "penis," "shag," "snog,"

Kate is a heavy drinker, and several scenes take place in a bar. A mother and he

Setting is at an actual touristy outdoor shopping mall in London. Stores seen in

A fish is unintentionally electrocuted. An accident results in a trip to the hos

Any Positive Content?

The key to happiness is helping others. Unplug and engage. Appreciate life. Addr

Tom is a positive force in Kate's and others' lives, helping them get through th

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Kate is sexually assertive and has casual sex with men she meets in bars or via dating apps; one scene has her waking up in a man's bed, apparently naked under the covers. Mention of a woman who runs a brothel.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"S--t" used frequently. Also, sexual terms like "d--k," "penis," "shag," "snog," "wanker." Plus variations of "hell," "damn," "crap," "bollocks," "tosser," "Jesus Christ" (as an exclamation), and "oh my God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Kate is a heavy drinker, and several scenes take place in a bar. A mother and her adult daughter bond by doing shots.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Setting is at an actual touristy outdoor shopping mall in London. Stores seen in the background include Coach, Stuart Weitzman, and Simpsons.

Violence & Scariness

A fish is unintentionally electrocuted. An accident results in a trip to the hospital. Immigrants are hatefully told to "go back to where you came from."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The key to happiness is helping others. Unplug and engage. Appreciate life. Addresses anti-immigrant sentiment (hate, xenophobia).

Positive Role Models

Tom is a positive force in Kate's and others' lives, helping them get through their daily struggles. London is a diverse city, and the movie reflects that, with characters representing a range of ethnicities, sexual orientations, disabilities, and nonstereotypical gender roles. Kate and her parents were refugees who immigrated to England. Homeless people are portrayed humanely.

Parents need to know that Last Christmas is a holiday romcom that centers on Kate ( Game of Thrones ' Emilia Clarke ), who survived a life-threatening illness and now shows signs of depression. She engages in reckless behavior -- drinking too much, acting irresponsibly, and hooking up for casual sex (nudity is implied in at least one scene) -- and is on the verge of being homeless. Her parents fled to England during Yugoslavia's civil war, and the movie addresses anti-immigrant sentiment. The film is quite diverse; characters represent a range of ethnicities, sexual orientations, disabilities, and nonstereotypical gender roles. There are also positive representations of a same-sex couple (a subplot involves them being forced out of the closet) and residents of a homeless shelter. The benefits of doing service work and unplugging to engage with the world around you are some of the film's messages. Swearing is mostly "s--t" and British sexual slang ("wanker," "shag," "snog"). Henry Golding ( Crazy Rich Asians ) and Emma Thompson co-star, and the film heavily features music from George Michael and Wham! To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (11)
• Kids say (21)

Based on 11 parent reviews

Good movie but some language issues to be aware of

It's a shame for emma thompson to accept a role like this., what's the story.

In LAST CHRISTMAS, we meet unlucky Londoner/aspiring singer Kate ( Emilia Clarke ), who's made many poor decisions, including taking a job as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop. Her overbearing Yugoslavian immigrant mother, Petra ( Emma Thompson ), and her friends are worried about her, especially after a life-threatening illness. As the true Christmas season approaches, Kate keeps running into Tom ( Henry Golding ), a big-hearted volunteer who seems to inspire her to turn her life around. But she worries that he might be too good to be true.

Is It Any Good?

British holiday romcoms are expected to deliver a little naughty and a whole lot of nice; Thompson's latest screenwriting effort does both, but the film doesn't twinkle as much as she does. Thompson came up with the story and wrote the script based around the music of her friend, the late George Michael. Thompson's voice is prominent; in fact, Kate's dialogue sizzles if you picture Thompson saying the lines rather than Clarke. Golding proves that he could easily play romantic heroes for the rest of his life, especially when he's channeling Cary Grant, as it seems he intentionally does here. Last Christmas is cute enough and delivers some surprises, but the scene stealer is unquestionably Thompson. She plays Petra with witty conviction, whether she's trying to understand the English translation of a dirty joke or singing Christmas dirges.

What's disappointing is that the film is based on a Captain Obvious-level pun. Happiness and sentimentality are delivered on a platter, along with rousing songs and a happy ending, but when the twist is revealed, tears will be shed -- and eyeballs will roll. You may not see it coming, but in the end it feels like the idea of the film came from two giggling teens. Entire TV networks are dedicated to churning out Christmas movies during the holidays, and cheese and corn are always the first two ingredients. But somehow it feels like one of the grand dames of British cinema should have offered something a little meatier.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can discuss the connection between gratitude and happiness. Do people feel happier when they're helping others? Why?

How does Tom act with integrity and compassion ? Why do you think he inspires Kate to be a better person and to appreciate life?

Discuss the romantic comedy genre: How does this film stack up? Why do you think audiences are drawn to these kinds of films? What does Last Christmas tell us about love compared with other romcoms?

Talk about the diversity in the film: Do you think it's an accurate take on what you'd see in a major city? Why is representation in the media important?

The film was written around the music of George Michael. How does it compare with movies made using the music of other artists (like Blinded by the Light, Yesterday , Mamma Mia! , etc.)?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 8, 2019
• On DVD or streaming : February 4, 2020
• Cast : Emilia Clarke , Henry Golding , Emma Thompson
• Director : Paul Feig
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Asian actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Romance
• Topics : Holidays , Music and Sing-Along
• Run time : 102 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : language and sexual content
• Last updated : August 12, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

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Screen Rant

Last christmas review: good schmaltzy holiday fun (but not a rom-com).

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The crow 2024’s box office eyeing franchise-low global milestone, tom cruise's sci-fi crime movie with 89% rt score gets high accuracy score from expert, 12 years after release, last christmas doesn’t have quite enough romance to be considered a true rom-com, but it's filled with a charming, heartwarming holiday spirit..

Recent years have seen a revival of not only romantic comedies in general, with the genre making a return to the theaters in a big way, but rom-coms set during the holiday season. Hallmark, Lifetime and Netflix listened to viewers demanding more Christmas-themed rom-coms on the small screen, but with the theatrical release of Last Christmas , this specific genre makes the leap back to the big screen. However, Last Christmas isn't a typical rom-com, though it does rest on the shoulders of its two leads, Emilia Clarke ( Game of Thrones ) and Henry Golding ( Crazy Rich Asians ).  Last Christmas doesn’t have quite enough romance to be considered a true rom-com, but it's filled with a charming, heartwarming holiday spirit.

In Last Christmas , Clarke stars as the selfish and self-destructive Kate, an aspiring singer who hasn't been the same since falling ill the previous year. Though she works year-round at a Christmas shop run by Santa (Michelle Yeoh), Kate is anything but filled with the holiday spirit as she does everything she can to avoid her family, particularly her mother Adelia (Emma Thompson). When Kate meets Tom (Golding), her life begins to change. The delightfully weird man continues to pop into her life at random moments and Kate finds herself drawn to him and his philosophies about life. But as Kate starts to fall for Tom, she realizes that a relationship with him might not fit in with the new life she's beginning to build.

Last Christmas is directed by Paul Feig ( Bridesmaids ) from a script by Emma Thompson ( Sense and Sensibility ) and newcomer Bryony Kimmings based on a story by Thompson and her husband Greg Wise. For the most part,  Last Christmas tells a compelling tale about trauma and the sometimes messy path a person takes to heal and move forward with their life, all wrapped in the timeless schmaltz of a Christmas movie. As a result, Last Christmas isn't a typical romantic comedy, though it does sometimes veer into that territory (and it was, perhaps unwisely, marketed as such). Instead, the film is more of a dramedy with a romantic subplot. And, like Kate's life at the beginning of the movie, Last Christmas makes some messy choices, incorporating certain story beats that are introduced then forgotten though they're seemingly meant to serve Kate's arc. But rather than give Last Christmas any depth, they come across as haphazard inclusions that detract from the main story rather than add to it.

That said, the success of Last Christmas truly rests on the shoulders of its cast, and Golding and Clarke have charisma to spare as their offbeat characters. Clarke excellently pulls off a character who, on the page, might seem unlikable, bringing plenty of charm to her role as Kate. Clarke also works well alongside Golding, who broke out last summer in the rom-com Crazy Rich Asians . Last Christmas gives Golding a chance to play an atypical leading man, who's more manic pixie dream guy than anything else. To Last Christmas's credit, it's incredibly fun to watch Golding be goofy and Clarke be cynical, though the film might ultimately leave viewers wanting more of their dynamic. As for the supporting cast, Yeoh has a scene-stealing turn as Kate's boss Santa, though not all of her storyline lands in the way it's presumably meant to and comes off weirdly awkward. Still, Last Christmas is Clarke and Golding's movie, and they carry it well - with the exception of a few lines of dialogue that are too melodramatic for any actor to pull off.

Ultimately, Last Christmas delivers on the promise of being a heartfelt holiday movie, but it isn't the rom-com moviegoers may be expecting. What the film may lack in romance, though, it makes up for with an engaging story about the difficulty of healing from trauma. Like Kate, Last Christmas is a little messy, but that's all part of its charm. And, to be sure, Last Christmas is undoubtedly charming, though a little offbeat in the way that many Feig films are. It tells a story about complicated women, like many of Feig's movies, offering up compelling characters unlike any others in Hollywood. And like Feig's previous work, Last Christmas is thoroughly entertaining, even as it veers into more bizarre territory.

As such, fans of Feig's filmography and Christmas movies will be won over by the sweet sentimentality and weird humor in Last Christmas . The movie sometimes falls over the line into too much schmaltz, back-peddling into the cliché when so much of Last Christmas feels like a breath of fresh air. However, moviegoers shouldn't go into Last Christmas expecting a typical Christmas rom-com (akin to the comfortingly cheesy fare produced by Hallmark and its ilk), because that isn't what this movie sets out to be. Still, Last Christmas is delightfully heartwarming and sweetly entertaining when at its best.

Last Christmas  is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 102 minutes long and rated PG-13 for language and sexual content.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

Last Christmas

Last Christmas is a romantic comedy movie that stars Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding. Kate is a young woman with a knack for bad decisions who can't seem to get her life back on track. Working at a year-round Christmas store and hopping from couch to couch, everything seems like it'll never get better. But when she meets Tom, a lovely fellow who seems too good to be true, her fortunes begin to change just in time for the holidays.

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Last Christmas Review

So I watched Last Christmas tonight, without going into too much detail for fear of spoilers I think this is one of the best movies I’ve watched in 2019. It’s funny, dramatic and gut punching emotional with Emilia Clarke being absolutely amazing and carries the film effortlessly.

Clarke has this ability that allows her to balance the quirky, funny energetic personality she’s known for in real life within a character who is still damaged and traumatised from a life changing experience. There are moments that will make you cry and others where Clarke’s performance & infectious personality made me laugh and smile.

As much as I love her for her role in GOT, moving forward THESE are the types of roles that I think she is best suited for. Last Christmas is perfect as a date night movie, or one to watch your parents. It might even be one of the best Christmas movies that you can watch, I honestly can’t recommend this enough.

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‘Last Christmas’ Review: When Holiday Movies Go Very, Very Wrong

• By David Fear

Kate ( Emilia Clarke ) is in a rut. Long ago, as a girl growing up in Yugoslavia circa 1999, she was a songbird who could turn George Michael’s “Heal the Pain” into a transcendental choral experience. Decades later, she’s a young woman who drinks away her pain in London’s pubs and manages to alienate her most loyal friends. Don’t get her started about her family: Dad ( Boris Isakovic) was a former lawyer who now drives a cab; Mom (co-writer Emma Thompson ) browbeats everyone; her sister (Lydia Leonard) isn’t speaking to her. Occasionally, she auditions for roles in musical theater productions like an ice-skating version of Frozen. Mostly, Kate half-heartedly works at a year-round Christmas decorations store. She is a lovable, quirky fuck-up, U.K. Toxic-Twee division.

But soft, what light through yonder retail shop’s window breaks? His name is Tom ( Crazy Rich Asians’ Henry Golding). He’s so very handsome but also so very annoying, Kate thinks, what with his constant bike-riding and unimpeachable optimism and endless requests that she “look up.” Because that’s how you see the wonders of the everyday world that are above you and all around you, if only you took the time to notice them! Kate mocks his sunny disposition. Tom forces her to be nicer to people, and to herself. Except the manic J. Crew dream hunk has a habit of taking off at inopportune moments — the guy “works nights,” you see — or disappearing altogether, and then mysteriously reappearing when our heroine is at her lowest. But in the meantime, she starts volunteering at the local homeless shelter, and acts as a matchmaker for her boss (Michelle Yeoh) and a distinguished Dutch customer (Peter Mygind) who the older woman likes and calls “Boy,” which … just … never mind.

Even if you haven’t paid attention to the slight internet chatter around Last Christmas, you can sense some sort of big reveal is looming on the horizon. In fact, you can probably identify exactly what said climactic curveball is if you’re paying a smidgen of attention, especially when talk of some vague past illness Kate has suffered begins to surface. When your worst fears are confirmed — and then doubled down on — it doesn’t cause your heart to go pitter-patter so much as make your blood boil with rage. The are-you-serious turn that the film treats as deep is admittedly on-brand, however. This is the kind of movie that also mistakes obvious and cloying for clever, ham-fisted for subtle, and merely stringing together George Michael tunes as some sort of homage.

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Right, the Michael factor: The title takes its name from Wham’s melancholy 1986 ditty, which took on a new level of poignancy when the singer passed away on December 25th, 2016. (Remember this date.) After Thompson was approached with an offer to pen a script based on the song, the British screen icon, her collaborator/husband Greg Wise and her cowriter Bryony Kimmings instead conceived a Christmas movie that borrowed heavily from his music. And while the end result never goes full Mamma Mia with the idea, it does mean that, for example, a scene of Kate waking up will be accompanied by a video of Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.” When she sings a lullaby to heal her pain, it turns into “Heal the Pain” on the soundtrack. A montage of the couple experiencing a rush of blissful freedom is set to the strains of “Freedom ’90.” The fact that Kate’s increasingly smitten glances at this enigmatic beau do not cue up “I Want Your Sex” feels like a missed opportunity, but if you’re like us, you will feel a nostalgic pang upon hearing Michael’s songs again. Cherish that feeling of good will. It is in very short supply here.

Which brings us to the genuine spoiler here: Last Christmas is bad. Incredibly, shockingly, monumentally bad. The kind of bad that falls somewhere between finding a lump of coal in your stocking and discovering one painfully lodged in your rectum. The kind of bad that you get when you bring together people of enormous talent and then are forced to watch them flail around, lost and flop-sweat desperate, attempting to make a romantic comedy that is mind-bogglingly short of both elements. The kind of bad where you might literally hear the tolerance messaging — same-sex unions, homelessness, anti-immigrant prejudice, Brexit — being ticked off a checklist were it not drowned out by the sound of everyone patting themselves on the back. The kind of bad that you get when you aim for that Richard Curtis sweet-spot à la Love Actually and actually land, face-first, into a pile of garbage just like your lead character. Yes, Clarke’s Kate is a mess. She can’t begin to compete with the movie she is in. You pray for a trio of dragons to swoop from the sky and burn the whole thing to the ground, incinerating prints of the film as an added bonus. (We’re kidding, of course. Films are no longer shown in multiplexes via prints.)

'Game of Thrones': Emilia Clarke, the Queen of Dragons, Tells All

George michael: 20 essential songs.

How this managed to devolve into such a tainted-tinsel disaster is, frankly, a more intriguing mystery than the one at the center of the story. Clarke has all the makings of a screwball comedian. Golding has screen presence and charisma to burn. On paper, the notion of Thompson telling dick jokes in a thick Eastern European accent sounds hilarious; we’re also talking about the woman who wrote the screenplay for Sense and Sensibility, the gold standard for how to do modern lit-classic adaptations correctly. Paul Feig directed Bridesmaids, Spy and numerous key episodes of NBC’s The Office. Even if you don’t dig the tune that gives the movie its name, George Michael’s back catalogue is emotionally resonant and eminently ripe for the full-soundtrack treatment. Who couldn’t use a story doused in the milk of human kindness?

Individually, the ingredients seem foolproof. Add it all together, paced like a slowly leaking faucet and cut together in a way that makes you wonder whether the editors were being chased by the police, and what you get is a flavorless mishmash. It makes sense that Last Christmas isn’t coming out at the end of December but right on the cusp of Thanksgiving. It’s a bona fide holiday-movie turkey.

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‘Last Christmas’ Review: A Forgettable Holiday Trifle

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It’s difficult to write this Last Christmas review because I saw the movie less than 12 hours ago and I’ve already largely forgotten it. Perhaps that’s the intent of this kind of disposable holiday fare—to make for a nice date night during the Christmas season and nothing more—and yet one would expect the film to leave a greater impact given the talent involved. It’s got Paul Feig ( Bridesmaids and A Simple Favor ) directing a script co-written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Emma Thompson . It’s got great actors in the lead roles. There’s nothing particularly offensive about Last Christmas , but it’s far less than the sum of its parts. It’s a nice movie, but one that fails to stick around the second the credits start to roll.

Kate ( Emilia Clarke ), a die-hard fan of George Michael ’s music, is a human trainwreck in London working in a year-round Christmas store for “Santa” ( Michelle Yeoh ), the shop’s demanding but good-hearted owner. Kate’s life has kind of gone off the rails since she got sick a couple years ago, and now she spends her days alienating her family and friends while pursuing her dream of becoming a singer. While working at the shop one day, Tom ( Henry Golding ) comes into her life and his saintly demeanor and effervescent charm not only start to win Kate over, but inspire her to take stock of her life and work to be a better person.

Last Christmas is the worst kind of movie to review because it’s not particularly good and it’s not particularly bad. It just kind of exists. There are some good one-liners, Clarke and Golding show again why they’re part of the next generation of movie stars with their effortless charm and comic timing, and Feig directs all of it with a nice holiday sheen that gets you in the mood for the holiday season. There’s nothing wrong Last Christmas that you can point to and say, “Aha! That’s why the movie doesn’t work!” or “This aspect really makes it stand out and shine!”

There’s nothing broken about the movie, but everything it does reminds you of how it was better utilized in another film or TV show. Fleabag casts a heavy shadow over Last Christmas because not only is Kate a young woman living in London whose life is a mess, she also has an overachieving sister whom she loves but their relationship is strained. It’s nice to weave in the music of George Michael throughout, but it almost feels like his song “Last Christmas” was the starting point and then the rest of his music was largely dumped in because who doesn’t like George Michael? And then there’s a plot development you can probably see a mile away if you’ve watched the trailer. I won’t say much about it other than it doesn’t really add anything other than making Last Christmas feel like an odd assortment of other stories without one of its own.

Holiday movies are admittedly tough. You have to work within a particular framework and usually have to be comforting in some sense. Comfort and familiarity go hand-in-hand, and Last Christmas is nothing is not familiar. That doesn’t make it a “bad” movie. It’s the kind of movie that will pop up on a streaming service in a year or so and people will give it a shot because Clarke and Golding will likely be even bigger stars than they are now, and folks will watch and be like, “That was nice.” The problem is there are a lot of other nice Christmas movies out there as well and they’re likely to find a place in your heart rather than just passing time.

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Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding's Last Christmas is a ridiculous holiday trifle

“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” Dolly Parton famously liked to say. And it takes a lot of talent, apparently, to make a movie like Last Christmas — a pile-on of dingle-bell schmaltz so deeply ridiculous it’s almost hard to believe all the top-tier names that went into it.

Paul Feig ( Spy , Bridesmaids ) directs; Emma Thompson , possessor of two Oscars, cowrites and costars alongside Game of Thrones ’ Emilia Clarke and Crazy Rich Asians ’ Henry Golding ; the muse is Wham’s deathless titular ode to heartbreak under the mistletoe. The soundtrack is strictly gold-star George Michael , too, from “Faith” and “Freedom ’90” to “Praying for Time.”

It’s not so much that Christmas is less than the sum of its parts, exactly, as that it actually seems to want to be bad — a sort of Hallmark Movie deluxe, complete with random starry cameos ( Patti LuPone , Catastrophe ’s Rob Delaney) and a supernatural twist so ludicrous it may actually make you want to punch a reindeer.

Clarke is Kate, a lost Londoner who can’t seem to stop drinking and shagging and klutzing her way out of the good graces of everyone in her iPhone contacts. She’s not exactly homeless, but she’s quickly running out of couches to crash on, and wearing down the last nerve of her boss at a year-round holiday boutique, a woman called Santa (the lovely and regal Michelle Yeoh ; who knows what the hell she’s doing here).

Kate’s a sloppy elf, maybe, because all she really wants to be is a singer, despite the mounting evidence provided by multiple failed auditions. So when a handsome stranger (Golding) appears outside the shop one day and seems to offer friendship, or at least a lot of talk about bird stuff, she reluctantly submits to his sunny aphorisms and advice.

Clarke has waded into rom-com territory before with 2016’s Me Before You , and proved to have more in her repertoire than mother of dragons. Here she’s supposed to be a sort of adorable mess, her eyes panda-ringed in charcoal and blurry tattoos on every knuckle bone. She constantly alludes to an illness that changed her, and a family she can’t stand; somehow, when Kate’s not having one-night stands in friends’ guest rooms or accidentally assassinating their pet fish, the actress’s own loopy charisma keeps coming through.

Golding is less lucky, an outline of serene dreaminess with no discernible personality trait beyond really great hair, and Yeoh is given far too much snappy Gilmore Girls -style dialogue to regurgitate. As the overbearing mother still carrying a torch for her Yugoslav homeland, Thompson isn’t far off from Tina Fey’s grim Albanian in the old Girls parody on SNL .

And yet: When Christmas isn’t busy being frenetic and terrible and so tonally strange, there are moments when a line or a moment lands, and it almost feels good to surrender to the holiday cornball of it all. Like a gingerbread house you’ve sworn not to eat because it’s crumbly and sticky and has probably been sitting in the windowsill for way too long — but you do anyway, and you don’t completely hate it, because that’s what the holidays are for. C+

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Last Christmas Review

15 Nov 2019

Last Christmas

From the opening minutes of Last Christmas , it’s clear that Kate ( Clarke ) – or Katerina as her traditional mother from the former Yugoslavia calls her – is a mess. Not just a mess. But a hot mess. And every trope that term carries is delivered with a wallop: she has casual sex with strangers, drinks pints in pubs alone, bleaches her hair, neglects her once-fragile health, applies fat strokes of smudged black eye make-up, pulls a leopard print coat around her shoulders tightly, kills a goldfish and disappoints all of her once-patient friends over and over.

It’s crystal clear that the theme is ‘Heal the Pain’, the George Michael song that Kate has loved since being a kid, that becomes the almost-Dickensian mission statement of Tom ( Golding ), a charming man who after a seemingly-random encounter seems intent on making her see the hope and goodness in the world. But the more he takes Kate on adventures through a fairy-lit London, the more she tries to resist his attempts to get her to “look up” and see the everyday beauty she’s missing in her nigh-on nihilistic approach to living. A survival-mode cynicism born out of a health crisis she prefers not to discuss. But while the wound remains raw, Kate will never find peace.

Golding and Clarke are aided by a stellar supporting cast.

The damp chemistry between Golding and Clarke takes some time to light, but eventually does so in the hands of a sweet, smart, funny script by Emma Thompson (who also plays Kate’s difficult mother), Greg Wise and Bryony Kimmings (“Has anyone ever told you that there’s something serial killer-y about you?” Kate asks Tom during an early meeting). Both actors deliver solid, if broad, performances, with the exception of a scene which examines the soft bits hiding below Kate’s pain. It’s a much-needed moment of true, sobering substance, but it’s all too fleeting. The two are aided by a stellar supporting cast outside of Thompson, particularly Michelle Yeoh as Kate’s boss Santa, a Christmas-obsessive who enjoys her own weird, utterly-enchanting romance.

While stretching the credulity and credibility of Kate’s story – both the twists and turns within her own dysfunctional family and her burgeoning romantic relationship - Last Christmas still strains to be more than just a festive romcom. It takes in the painful consequences of Brexit, the reality of homelessness, the fear of the refugee community, the crippling trauma of illness and the increasingly fragile bonds of family. Some are handled more effectively than others – the homeless characters are often just two-dimensional props to a struggling plot – but the push for social relevance within what could simply be a sickly-sweet construct is admirable.

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• Cast & crew

Christmas Eve in Miller's Point

On Christmas Eve, a family gathers for what could be the last holiday in their ancestral home. As the night wears on and generational tensions arise, one of the teenagers sneaks out with her... Read all On Christmas Eve, a family gathers for what could be the last holiday in their ancestral home. As the night wears on and generational tensions arise, one of the teenagers sneaks out with her friends to claim the wintry suburb for her own. On Christmas Eve, a family gathers for what could be the last holiday in their ancestral home. As the night wears on and generational tensions arise, one of the teenagers sneaks out with her friends to claim the wintry suburb for her own.

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What to expect at Porchfest, from a longtime host of the Deering Center event

Bob Carroll recommends biking to the event, being open to meeting new people and maybe packing a snack.

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Bob Carroll hosts a band or two in his driveway on Bedell Street during Deering Center’s annual Porchfest. Photo courtesy of Bob Carroll

Every September, Bob Carroll turns his driveway on Bedell Street in Deering Center into a stage for Porchfest, when bands play in front of homes throughout the neighborhood. He’s been a host for nearly all of the festival’s 10 years and credited the organizers for the hard work they’ve put in over a decade to realize their vision. This year’s festival is 12:15-5 p.m. Sunday, and more than 65 bands will play throughout the afternoon. (Carroll, 53, will host 3rd Shelf Cava.)

Porchfest is free and open to all. For more information, including a map and parking details, check the Deering Center Neighborhood Association Facebook page . This interview has been edited for length.

What is involved in being a host for Porchfest?

The date has always been ingrained. It’s always been the Sunday after Labor Day when people are mostly around, so having that in your schedule.

The actual day-of is pretty easy. Unless you’re doing acoustics. I just put out power and make it nice. People set up in my driveway. People might do that or set up on their actual porch. It’s mostly a willingness to have them use that space for an hour, maybe 45 minutes, for them to set up, and the hour that they’re playing. The bands do the brunt of the work. I put out power and some chairs. The committee does a lot of the work. They put signs out.

There’s not that much labor involved, and you have to have a willingness to have them use your space.

Let’s say someone is coming to Porchfest for the first time. What advice would you give them about enjoying the day?

If you’re coming for a longer period of time or with your kids – it’s very kid-friendly – be prepared to meet some new people. It might be good to bring a snack because that stuff’s not really provided. Advertisement

Get a map. The maps are posted, but also there’s hard copies. They’ll put it online so you can have a map on your phone. A lot of people might know two or three bands that are playing, so you can map it out.

But you don’t have to plan it out. You’re going to be surrounded by music in a six-by-six-block radius and you can just go with the flow and just have a fun day of hearing different cool music and just being around people that want to be outside and listen to music.

We try to free up the street, so there is parking at Deering High School or places that they don’t barricade off. It’s good to be prepared. You might be doing some walking. A bike is a great way too to utilize the space.

Do you usually stay at your own place?

With two bands, it was a little harder, but I don’t usually have to go far. But if you’re a host, you still get to walk around and enjoy the music and see some of the crowds. You don’t have to stay the whole time. Most people might want to do that, but a half hour in or whatever, you can go see your friend’s band too and come back. People are really respectful about people’s property, about their space. That hasn’t been an issue for us. That’s another reason we continue to host.

Do you have a favorite Porchfest memory?

One got canceled over COVID, but the one the year after, in 2021, people just really wanted to be outside and see people and experience this. It was busy that year, and it ended up being a great day. I think people just wanted to be outside and doing stuff and seeing one another and supporting one another. I could go around and see a variety of different bands but also see a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a while due to being more around the house. That was probably my best memory, but there’s been a lot.

A crowd listens to Ideal Maine Social Aid and Sanctuary Band on Brentwood Street during Deering Center Porchfest 2023. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

What do you think Porchfest has brought to the Deering Center neighborhood? How has it impacted the neighborhood identity?

It’s a strong sense of community that we look out for one another. It’s good to laugh and be social and listen to music. The music brings people together and has that sense of community. You look around, and you’re smiling and laughing, and people might be dancing, and you’re seeing kids that are now grown. If I had to sum it up, it would be a strong sense of community.

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