Praying for Time

Last Christmas- 2019

Last Christmas is a film that critics either loathe or love. In a near Rotten Tomatoes tie, 51% of reviewers came out swinging and clobbered this film as a ridiculous waste of talent while 49% cheered it on as a charming crowd pleaser. I am ready to cast my vote!  Drum roll please…..Thumbs Up! While Last Christmas will not displace It’s a Wonderful Life or Home Alone, it’s a sweet, endearing story that grew on me like mistletoe throughout its 102 minutes, leaving me with a warm, feel-good seasonal smile. 

Kate (Emilia Clarke), in a definite demotion from GoT Dragon Queen, unhappily labors as a year-round elf in a London Christmas shop, relegated to dusting ornaments and dodging grinchy insults hurled by store owner “Santa” (Michelle Yeoh) who finds Kate’s work ethic sorely lacking.  Surprisingly, Santa puts up with Kate’s retail malaise even after she carelessly fails to lock up the shop and vandals trash it. Not just Kate’s employer, but friends and family bend over backwards tolerating Kate’s outrageous, ill mannered behavior. It seems there has been a 180° shift from positive, people person Kate to a dislikable, disagreeable permutation after a terrifying brush with death, her life dramatically saved by a donor heart transplant. Physically Kate healed but psychologically she was painfully reduced to someone unrecognizable by her circle of care.

Then, just in the nick of Saint Nicholas time we perk up with a yule tide whiff of a Christmas miracle when swarthy, dashing stranger Tom (Crazy Rich Asians Henry Golding) smoothly rides into the story on his bike and wins Kate’s heart, yes, her new one. Tom is as irrepressible as Kate is irresponsible. Tom is the sun to Kate’s gloom. Optimism meets fatalism. A match made in heaven. Indeed. Swept up in true romance, our lovestruck duo light up London. Tom picks a lock and introduces Kate to a rooftop ice rink, teaching her to skate while laughing, a December dream. Channeling Gene Kelly, he dances Kate to a fairytale secret garden for a tender first kiss. Tom tends to mysteriously disappear so we have stretches of time rooting on solo Kate as she emerges full of contagious high spirits from her dark place, making peace with herself and the people in her world. It’s fun to watch her patch together broken relationships with a sleigh load of random acts of kindness and a veritable jukebox of George Michael tunes that Kate sings all along the holiday way home.

As a point of interest, Last Christmas was nearly a decade in the making as an artistic collaboration between writer Emma Thompson—who also plays Kate’s distressed and depressed Yugoslavian movie mother Petra—and the late singer songwriter George Michael. With Michael’s untimely death in 2016, the project was respectfully shelved and only revived when Michael’s family gave their blessing. 

Christmas movies are best when they stir our emotions, inspire hope and cultivate gratitude and kindness. And of course there is the necessary weep factor gift wrapped and tucked under the tree. We get that and more as we witness Kate’s transformation from lost soul to loving soulmate. Forgiveness. Reconciliation. Rebirth. Joy. The stuff of enduring Christmas traditions.  All with a mystical, magical twist you will not soon forget. Thank you George Michael, this Christmas you gave us your heart.