Film

The Reviews Are In: ‘Last Christmas’ Is A Good, Mindless, Festive Rom-Com

"why is every critic acting as if last christmas is aiming to win best picture 2020 it’s a cute christmas rom com for god’s sake"

by Michelle Rennex  8 November 2019
Last Christmas reviews

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Last Christmas, the latest holiday rom-com to grace our screens, may have an impressive list of stars — but critics don’t believe it’s quite enough to save the film. But also — maybe that doesn’t matter?

While audiences are loving the holiday flick, describing it as a film that’s warm and charming, critics have taken to Last Christmas a little less desirably. While no critic is a fan of the movies obvious twist, there’s no denying the talent of the star-studded cast and the power of Emma Thompsons screenwriting abilities.

Inspired by the Wham! hit ‘Last Christmas’, the film of the same name follows the story of Kate (Emilia Clarke), an aspiring singer and apathetic employee of a year-round Christmas store. Since her near-death experience, Kate seems to be constantly down on her luck. That is until she meets Tom (Henry Golding), the super charming, mysterious and optimistic man who is the total opposite of Kate. The more time the pair spend together, the more Kate’s life begins to change for the better.

Despite the movies twist being spotted from a mile away, there were still high hopes for the film which features some of the biggest names in Hollywood right now.

With Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke and Crazy Rich Asians’ Henry Golding as lead co-stars, Last Christmas seemed like it would be a sure-fire hit. But not even a script co-written by Christmas movie royalty, Emma Thompson (of Love Actually), could save Last Christmas from the reception it received.

The General Consensus

Currently sitting at a 49% Rotten Tomatoes score, the critics reviews share similar feelings – Last Christmas is nothing to write home about, but it’s a good mindless festive rom-com.

The LA Times describes Last Christmas as “only slightly more elevated than your standard TV holiday rom-com fare, with a twist that can be seen coming from a mile away, it’s the performances and well-earned character arcs that make Last Christmas a satisfying holiday flick worth giving your heart to.”

While Vanity Fair call it “not good [but] not terrible, exactly” and while a “nice movie”, Last Christmas is devoid of “a richer sense of soul or purpose”.

Rolling Stone weren’t as gentle with their words calling the film just straight-up bad. “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,” David Fear wrote.

While critics aren’t exactly in love with the Christmas holiday flick, audiences do seem to be enjoying the film, focusing on the charm of a sweet rom-com instead of looking at The Last Christmas as an “Oscar-worthy movie”.

The Scripting And Comedy

Even with impressive screenplays under her belt like Sense and Sensibility, Emma Thompsons foray into Christmas rom-com fell flat. Despite writing herself into the script as a mother with a thick foreign accent who slings around dick jokes, an often guaranteed easy laugh, Thompson couldn’t save Last Christmas. 

Related
"I Spent Four Years In Mourning": Remembering 'Freaks And Geeks' With Paul Feig

Benjamin Lee of The Guardian says “there’s a defiant avoidance of nuance or depth in Thompson’s script.” Lee adds, “the script feels like a rejected first draft with unfunny filler one-liners and a scrappy, ill-thought through narrative.” This is in contrast to Empire who believe Last Christmas had a “sweet, smart, funny script” thanks to Thompson and her co-writer Bryony Kimmings.

While Rolling Stone believes “individually the ingredients seem foolproof,” David Fear concludes the film is just a “flavour mishmash”. He continues, “this is the kind of movie that also mistakes obvious and cloying for clever, ham-fisted for subtle, and merely strings together George Michael tunes as some sort of homage.” A sentiment echoed by Vanity Fair who add that Last Christmas has “a cloying yet vague sentiment, [an] obvious twist, [and] erratic humour that rarely lands.”

Thanks to directing by Paul Feig, the genius director responsible for the successful comedies Bridesmaids and Spy, Last Christmas isn’t a total write-off. With the LA Times believing that Feig adds “a swift bounciness to the material”.

The Casting And Chemistry

While the casting was praised for its diversity, critics felt that Clarke and Golding lacked chemistry, with Empire describing the pairing as “damp”.

Despite the obvious talents of the stellar cast, Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the pairing of the two “an impossible hurdle,” which made all the simple movie moments “feel badly laboured.”

Others believe that the lack of chemistry just came down to a bad case of miscasting, particularly regarding Emilia Clarke and her character Kate. The Guardian doesn’t blame Clarke for this, and instead call the character “uncomfortably forced, [with an] overly mannered schtick, trying to emulate a Meg Ryan or a Julia Roberts but without any of their inherent charm.”

The New York Times shares the same thoughts, saying that “the actors look good together… but her character’s strenuous perkiness and his character’s damp sincerity cancel each other out.”

Last Christmas is in cinemas across Australia now, so you can decide for yourself: Fave or flop?