Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Film Review - Last Christmas (2019)

Last Christmas is co-written by Ms Emma Thompson, is directed by Paul Feig and stars Emilia Clarke as Cate or Katarina for short who works in a specialty Christmas store but has been very sick, one night after work she meets Tom (Henry Golding) who opens her eyes to a world where she rarely looks up.

Last Christmas asks for your heart but in 2 short hours it takes it away (takes it away) but the 2 leads Clarke and Golding save it from being a lump of Coal in the family Christmas stocking, Ms Clarke in particular is really good here and shows a lot of potential as a romantic lead in movies going ahead, she has a lot of charm, has big expressive eyes that say a lot and you really get on her side and its nice to see this side of her outside of being Daenerys Taegeren Mother of Dragons and the Rushed Character Arc.

As for Mr Golding again he shows what a great star he is turning into in a short amount of time, he’s charming, charismatic and shows a warmth and caring side that is very refreshing in a romantic movie and his chemistry with Ms Clarke is the best thing about the film.

As for the rest of the film well sadly it is not the best and the big culprit is the screenplay by Ms Thompson as well as Greg Wise and Briony Kimmings and it above all else has some serious tonal issues that it doesn’t really make gel very well as on the one hand it wants to be this fun, lighthearted and romantic Christmas movie (though Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie known to all mankind just saying) but on the other hand its lead character has a serious condition that for me made me go “Nup I’m sorry your not doing this right now” and there’s a Brexit sideplot that really has nothing to do with the rest of the movie at all and both could have easily been excised from the script without hurting the film too much.

And so that was Last Christmas and look its okay but really without its 2 charming leads this Christmas movie is little better than a lump of Coal in the Christmas Stocking, 1.5 out of 5.

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