4/5 stars
It is only early November and the Christmas movie wave is already kickstarting with Last Christmas, and as someone who doesn’t typically get excited about Christmas films, I actually really enjoyed it.
Our unlucky heroine Kate, played by Emilia Clarke, is a mess after having a life saving operation.
She works in an all year round Christmas shop as a disgruntled elf whilst trying to establish a career as a singer and has to live out of a suitcase as she struggles to hold down a place to stay.
However, she wasn’t always like this; the opening sequence of the film shows her as a child singing beautifully in her native Yugoslavia, to her finding herself in bed with a man who’s wife came home early.
As Kate is the main protagonist she has to be likeable, and Emilia Clarke nails it, very far away from her most famous role as the Mother of Dragons.
Although she can be pretty selfish and a bit miserable at times, it makes her quite relatable.
With some help from her love interest, she becomes aware of how being kind and living your life to the fullest is what it means to be alive.
Speaking of her love interest, this was my first time watching Henry Golding, carrying on his leading man run from Crazy Rich Asians.
His character has strong chemistry with Emilia’s and I almost fell in love with him as much as she did.
The comedy was a bit hit or miss and a lot of the jokes just felt a little bit awkward.
The only part that really made me laugh was when a woman in front of me in the audience gave an audible gasp as an ornament nearly fell from a shelf.
The story is very stereotypical of what you would expect from a rom-com but despite the story’s lack of strength, it’s still quite emotional and has the same festive atmosphere that you’d expect from a good Christmas movie.
If you want to watch a feel-good Christmas movie backed with the entire catalogue of George Michael and Wham!, then I’d definitely recommend it.
Erica Goncalves Lopes
Bethany Aspinall
Megan Kelly