As the holiday season is among us, a movie with the title The Last Christmas might sound intriguing. Luckily, a movie with this title has been going around theaters for a while now. I took matters into my own hands and went out and saw this movie for the rest of us.
The Last Christmas stars Emilia Clarke as Kate and Henry Golding as Tom, the two main characters. Others staring in this film include Emma Thompson, Michelle Yeoh and Patti LuPone. All of these actors were directed by Paul Feig. This romantic comedy takes place when the most wonderful time of the year is transforming London.
Since Kate’s family has moved to England from Yugoslavia, nothing has been the same. Her dad stays away from the house as much as possible, her mother suffers from depression and her sister Marta, is a successful lesbian, which is not necessarily ideal for her parents. Kate struggles with her own problems as well. She is an aspiring singer, but as this continues to fail, she is stuck with working in a year-round Christmas store while desperately finding a couch to crash on every night. On top of all this, Kate had life changing heart surgery 9 months ago.
When everything seems horrible in Kate’s life, she meets a handsome boy named Tom outside of her work one day. Tom understands Kate and all her barriers in life, something no one has ever been able to do in her life. But Tom keeps disappearing and leaving Kate’s life when she needs him the most. Kate was right when she thought meeting Tom was too good to be true. At the end of the movie, viewers will understand why.
After watching this movie, I was left with several mixed feelings. First, let’s start with all my good thoughts on this movie. It definitely captured the Christmas season: families celebrating holidays, the Christmas store Kate works at, seeing London covered in decorations. The soundtrack was also suited the movie very well, with fast paced songs during feel-good moments but still songs to go along with the sad emotions as well. Another positive was the fact that the title and concept of the movie directly correlates with the song, Last Christmas by WHAM! The movie starts and ends with this song. By the end of the movie, you will realize how clever it was for this song to be used so heavily throughout the movie once you listen to the lyrics a few times through.
And now, the inevitable negatives. For at least the first 30 minutes of the movie, I was waiting for the plot to develop. It consistently was just about Kate’s personal struggles in life. At one point, I was even doubting Tom’s arrival into the plot, even though he ends up being a major character. I also felt that the commercials for this movie failed to really give a good representation of the movie. From the commercials, I expected something way different than what I was given. If you have seen this movie, you know exactly what I am talking about. For this reason, I feel like I was almost robbed of my $12 ticket price.
Despite the things that weren’t my favorites in this movie, I would still recommend this to anyone who won’t go into the movie with high hopes. Although this movie may get spirits down during the Christmas season, it ends in a heart-warming way. From my review, I hope I was able to maybe save you $12 or influence you to spend $12.