Last Christmas (2019)
Directed by Paul Feig
Kate is a young woman who has a habit of making bad decisions, and her last date with disaster occurs after she accepts work as Santa's elf for a department store. However, after she meets Tom there, her life takes a new turn.
4 connections found
View:
4 films that influenced Last Christmas
What critics say influenced Last Christmas
I will also admit that, even though the final twist didn’t bother me or strike me as cloying or facile, it’s still pretty hard to accept, Last Christmas entering into that melodramatic Frank Capra-esque realm of emotionally-saccharine magical realism few filmmakers other than the It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington master have been able to pull off with any consistency.
The Hallmark Channel, Lifetime and even Netflix have proven that for every The Bishop’s Wife or It’s a Wonderful Life , there’s also a place for improbable romantic cheese involving holiday spirit and a strategically placed sprig of mistletoe.
You can easily picture Emilia Clarke taking on any role in a holiday classic and make it believable (Mary Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, Ellen in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation).
On the contrary, knowing that Tom is basically It’s A Wonderful Life -ing Kate makes the movie that much sweeter while you watch it.
British producer David Livingstone ( Judy ) was pondering on Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life when he came up with the idea.
It’s A Wonderful Life has gone down as a classic since its release and Christmas Vacation is a non-stop laugh riot.
Imagine if Will Ferrell’s “Elf” was having a “Bad Santa” day and you’ll get a sense of Kate’s downward spiraling lifestyle: dragging a rolling suitcase from couch to couch, drinking alone in pubs, drowning her sorrows in full pints and one-night stands.
It happened in 1994, with “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” and in 1999, with “Notting Hill,” and in 2001, with “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”
Surrounded by love stories and holiday cheer in a glossy, pre-Christmas London (even “Notting Hill” showed off more grime, and that’s a film that takes place mostly in a bookshop and at swanky press junkets), Kate is suddenly confronted with an appealing paramour.
Yes Love Actually , The Holiday and (technically) Bridget Jones’s Diary are always at the top of my rewatch list.
I admit, I kept waiting for Last Christmas to elevate to the hallowed ground occupied by contemporary holiday romcoms like Love, Actually , The Holiday or The Family Stone .