There are people who claim, not unconvincingly, that Wham!’s perennial earworm “Last Christmas” is only nominally a Christmas song (Lifehacker’s Nick Douglas called it the Die Hard of Christmas songs in a 2017 post). I’d argue that the insistent sleighbells and theme of manipulating people through gift-giving is, in fact, very pertinent to the holiday, but otherwise, I can concede that it is very much a love song whose yuletide framework could be interpreted as circumstantial. It is equally appropriate and regrettable that Paul Feig’s Last Christmas, which was named after the song, is barely a Christmas movie. Yes, it takes place at Christmastime, it’s largely set in a Christmas store, and its protagonist learns a remedial lesson about the soul-warming effect of helping others, but that’s all backdrop to a rather chaste and saccharine love story with superficial subplots concerning Brexit and queer coming out that could take place at any time of year and still go down like curdled eggnog.
” is only nominally a Christmas song . I’d argue that the insistent sleighbells and theme of manipulating people through gift-giving is, in fact, very pertinent to the holiday, but otherwise, I can concede that it is very much a love song whose yuletide framework could be interpreted as circumstantial.
The movie is also a lazy tribute to George Michael, featuring several of his songs during montages and transitional scenes, where generic Christmas music might blare in a more Christmassy Christmas movie. It includes hits like “Everything She Wants” and “Faith,” and deep cuts like “Fantasy” and “Heal the Pain.” “Last Christmas” itself plays some half dozen times in various iterations, mostly via electronic toys and a band of homeless people. For the sake of the narrative, Michael’s music works to underscore the fandom of protagonist Kate , who compares her life to that of Michael’s in an early sceo’clock shadow. It’s not because she rocks a leather jacket and butt-hugging jeans combo like a second skin.
Even this embarrassingly spare distillation of Michael’s legacy in a movie ostensibly devoted to paying tribute to it manages to be inaccurate. Michael was a terrifically successful singer-songwriter throughout thethe couch-surfing Kate returns to her parents’ house and childhood bedroom, whereFaithChristmas and George Michael are grafted on
to a rather inert love story between Kate and Tom , who meet outside the Christmas shop where Kate seems to be the only employee besides her borderline abusive boss, Santa, played by Michelle Yeoh. (Clearly, Yeoh being on the same screen as Golding gives us the yuletide
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