Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Emma Thompson, Maxim Baldry, Madison Ingoldsby, Boris Isakovic, Lucy Miller, John-Luke Roberts, Patti LuPone, Margaret Clunie, Lydia Leonard, Peter Serafinowicz, Sara Powell, Ritu Ayre, Ansu Kabia, Fabian Frankel, Laura Evelyn, Ingrid Oliver, Rebecca Root, Angus Brown, Kemi Durosinmi, Yinka Awoni, Angela Wynter, Sue Perkins, Joe Blackmore, Ben Owen-Jones, David Hargreaves, Calvin Demba, Anna Calder-Marshall.
Christmas is a time for hope, redemption, of coming together as a society and being thankful for the fact that we have survived another year, that our hearts might recognise the undeniably truth that we have a lot more to gain if we stand side by side with each other, no matter our differences, instead of allowing ourselves to be torn apart by those who are willing to see our hearts break.
Christmas is also the time for the walk down the route of sentimentality, the blending of restoration of spirit and the recovery of the soul in peril; it is in this that we celebrate the writing and characters of arguably Charles Dickens’ most famous work, A Christmas Carol, it is why films such as Love Actually, The Grinch and, depending on your point of view, even the first Die Hard film have become endearing moments of cinema’s endless fascination with the winter holiday.
Whilst not an advocate of the Scrooge mentality, nor content rescuing a group of strangers from the whim of a German thief, Yugoslavian born but very much embraced in the British ethic of morose culpability in the Christmas period, Kate has the chance to turn her life around and accept life has given her a second chance after a spell in hospital in which she received a donor’s heart, and whilst she has fallen into the depths of being angry about her life, redemption comes knocking on the door in the form of a young man whose way of looking at life leaves her confused about her relationship with her own fears.
The issue that many would take with type of film is one of that sentiment, the way that they suggest such a premise is based in the schmaltz or corny rendition, but they forget that Christmas itself is based than overriding emotion, it is not the time for the hard-nosed reminders of cruelty, we want to be reminded, or at least given hope, that the desperate can be helped, that the poor and the homeless have a champion in us all, and that one person can have their minds changed, a heart can begin to heal.
For that alone, Last Christmas is a good film to wallow within, yes it would never be the one to sweep awards, or perhaps even be in the top ten of fan moments in which to sit back and feel waves of nostalgia for, but it has heart, it is a film for which is perhaps nearer the truth of life than most cinema experiences can hold a candle to and it is also, and most importantly, honest about its end result.
Last Christmas, a film to feel content in its company for a while.
Ian D. Hall