Paul Feig's quieter Christmas comedy is one that stands up to repeated viewings. With a banging soundtrack that mines the archives of George Michaels' achievements, the warming tale of Kate and Tom is the right balance of sweet and twee that the best mainstream Christmas films ace.
Emilia Clarke and Harry Golding play off each other so well as the chemistry sparks and lights brighter than the tacky Chinese gifts of Santa's Christmas store. Clarke shows a great deal of warmth, comedy and kindness that she rarely got to show as the tragic, hardfaced, mad ruler in Game of Thrones and hits the dramatic beats as Tom's existence in her life begins to complicate things. Golding, for his part, gets to do a bit more than he did in Crazy Rich Asians and Simple Favor, playing a goofy and insightful delivery man with the smouldering looks of young Sean Connery or Omar Shariff. They're helped tremendously by an absolute killer support cast including Michelle Yeoh, as Kate's hardnosed, romantically awkward boss and Emma Thompson, as Kate's depressed Yugoslavian mother. Each absolutely nailing their scenes of comedy and pathos without pulling focus from the main story of a young girl, lost at Christmas and the magic we can find, if only we look for it. Feig still finds opportunities for absolutely nutty comedy, though, like when Santa meets the Boy for the first time, or Emma Thompson's Petra waking up to lament the racist British and blaming the Polish. Flashbacks to Kate's doomed flatmates and beleaguered friends make the most of her disastrous position in life early on with big laughs.
The weight of the plot is skillfully underplayed, so that when the emotional beats occur at the end of the third act, it takes a minute or two for it all to sink in. I cannot remember ever welling up at a film half an hour AFTER it finished on the way home, or when I try to explain the plot to others. It's moving, lovely and just the right side of sweet without being melodramatic, and both main actors and the writing sell it wonderfully. While it may not be a modern classic, sitting besides the likes of Joyeux Noel or the darker than treacle Bad Santa, it has a space as one of the best cozy up to your loves on a Sunday night Christmas films, and in a time where companies like Netflix are vomiting out five or six new seasonal films a year, that's a massive achievement!
Emilia Clarke and Harry Golding play off each other so well as the chemistry sparks and lights brighter than the tacky Chinese gifts of Santa's Christmas store. Clarke shows a great deal of warmth, comedy and kindness that she rarely got to show as the tragic, hardfaced, mad ruler in Game of Thrones and hits the dramatic beats as Tom's existence in her life begins to complicate things. Golding, for his part, gets to do a bit more than he did in Crazy Rich Asians and Simple Favor, playing a goofy and insightful delivery man with the smouldering looks of young Sean Connery or Omar Shariff. They're helped tremendously by an absolute killer support cast including Michelle Yeoh, as Kate's hardnosed, romantically awkward boss and Emma Thompson, as Kate's depressed Yugoslavian mother. Each absolutely nailing their scenes of comedy and pathos without pulling focus from the main story of a young girl, lost at Christmas and the magic we can find, if only we look for it. Feig still finds opportunities for absolutely nutty comedy, though, like when Santa meets the Boy for the first time, or Emma Thompson's Petra waking up to lament the racist British and blaming the Polish. Flashbacks to Kate's doomed flatmates and beleaguered friends make the most of her disastrous position in life early on with big laughs.
The weight of the plot is skillfully underplayed, so that when the emotional beats occur at the end of the third act, it takes a minute or two for it all to sink in. I cannot remember ever welling up at a film half an hour AFTER it finished on the way home, or when I try to explain the plot to others. It's moving, lovely and just the right side of sweet without being melodramatic, and both main actors and the writing sell it wonderfully. While it may not be a modern classic, sitting besides the likes of Joyeux Noel or the darker than treacle Bad Santa, it has a space as one of the best cozy up to your loves on a Sunday night Christmas films, and in a time where companies like Netflix are vomiting out five or six new seasonal films a year, that's a massive achievement!