Last Christmas | Blogmas Day 1

Hey Guys x

Happy Blogmas Day 1!

As I said in my 'Blogmas 2019' post, Blogmas this year is going to be made up entirely of Christmas film reviews, which gave me the best excuse to watch Christmas movies throughout November and I loved it.

But this film was one that I was always going to see, regardless of the time of year.

Kate (Emilia Clarke) is having a tough time. She works as an Elf in a Christmas shop, and after being ill last year, feels completely unfulfilled in her life. That is, until she meets Tom (Henry Golding). A few chance encounters bring the pair together, and slowly, Kate begins to find the happiness that she'd been missing.

I really wanted to love this movie. I mean, Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, romance, Christmas, George Michael, what's not to love?
Sadly, a lot.

But I'll start with the things that I liked first.

Emilia Clarke's character, Kate, is a very endearing character. Even in the beginning of the movie when we're told that she is selfish and not the nicest person, you can't help but love her because she really is a character that people can relate to.

It's a very original film, not your usual Christmas movie at all... which you'll see when I review a lot less original movies later in the month. And it's also really nice to see a movie set in a place that you're so familiar with. The movie would have worked anywhere and still been original, so I loved that it was set in London.

And then there's the cast, who were really great. As well as Emilia and Henry, there was also Emma Thompson who played Kate's mother Petra (she also wrote and produced the movie) and Michelle Yeoh, who played Kate's boss 'Santa', as well as so many other great actors.

However, as mentioned, I didn't love the film, for a few reasons.

While Kate and Tom had chemistry, this is hardly the epic love story that the film tries to make you think it is. To be honest, without giving anything away, I wouldn't necessarily even call it a rom-com.

And part of that is because of Henry Golding's character, Tom. The only way I can describe him is 'bland'. He doesn't have a personality, and just running into someone a few times isn't enough to constitute a romantic movie. Of course, you can understand the attraction between them, but anything more than an initial attraction seems far-fetched.

Speaking of far-fetched, there were two love stories in this film, and the second one was so cheesy and unrealistic that I'm still wondering why it was included in the movie. To me, it didn't add that much, and wasn't particularly focused on.

For some reason, probably due to the trailers, I went into the movie thinking that there would be a time jump. Because of that, I spent a lot of time waiting for the film to 'start', because the start to me felt like it was setting up for something bigger, which it wasn't.

The film tried to tackle important issues, such as racism/Brexit and homelessness, which is admirable and a really good idea for a Christmas movie, but the problem is that it just glossed over them and, for the homeless crisis especially, kind of looked at it through rose-tinted spectacles. I'm really happy with the way that Kate's character felt a connection with both of these issues, but I would have liked to see a bit more about them.

I guess the main problem I have with this film is that, with usual cheesy Christmas movies, the director leans into the cheese because they know exactly what they're making and how it will be perceived. With this film, everything takes itself too seriously. It feels like everyone involved felt like they were making the Christmas film of the decade (which it's actually being called) and because of that, the whole film falls flat, because in some ways, it's just as cheesy as all the Christmas movies on Netflix that we watch and laugh at.

Overall I didn't love the film, and neither the great cast nor the interesting twist could save it from being just okay, but I still want to watch it again. As a Christmas movie goes, it was cheesy, fun, and endearing, even if it wasn't the Christmas rom-com of the decade that it portrayed itself as.

Originality - 8/10
Christmas Spirit - 6/10
Christmas Music - 7/10

It's 24 days until Christmas!

Come back tomorrow for Blogmas Day 2!

Lou