Holiday Streams: Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding starrer rom-com Last Christmas is more than just a love story

Directed by Paul Feig, the film stars Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Emma Thompson and Michelle Yeon

Last Christmas

I am not a big fan of Christmas and holiday films, to be honest. They are but sometimes my guilty pleasure watch and I give them a try when I desperately need a break from reality or want to just get transported to some fantasy world where everything and anything is possible. Last Christmas is one such movie. Highly recommended by a friend, I decided to give it a watch. She told me it would be a completely different movie experience. And it indeed was.

The film has a usual story where two strangers meet in the most unlikely situation and fall in love. However, they have managed to quite hold the suspense throughout the narrative, kudos to its writing. It creates curiosity, which helps you stay put throughout the movie. The film revolves around Kate aka Katarina (Emilia Clarke), a troubled store elf who is known to make all the wrong decisions in life and is stubborn. Her family call her selfish and uncaring but they seem to tolerate her because she is ill. Her being ill is constantly brought up in the story which grips you to the movie. Sometimes, it makes you wonder if it could be some mental health issue as she does seem a little crazy. The film keeps you guessing about it and also about the mysterious stranger she meets on the streets. But your guesses and calculations go wrong when you realise the actual story behind the two.

Both the leads portray some mysterious traits in their personalities. You see Tom Webster (Henry Golding), Kate's mysterious stranger, always on the streets, bicycling and never to be found when Kate's looking for him. Kate is seen going to the shelter for the homeless looking for him as he had said he volunteers there but the staff knows nothing about the person she keeps naming. She ends up helping too instead until she meets Tom again and he takes her to his apartment. That's when the big revelation happens. Her mysterious illness is revealed.

For a moment, you even think that Tom could be probably a Santa Claus in a young biker avatar as he chooses himself when to appear before Kate and helps her figure out her life. These fantasy holiday movies can get your imaginations run wild. But apparently, he is not. He does leave a few other hints saying when she's looking for him, all she needs to do is look within herself. But one would not think that he quite literally meant it when he said that.

Major spoiler alert ahead! The illness that Kate's family was talking about was her heart transplant and the mysterious Tom is a ghost who died in an accident and donated his heart to her. Though falling in love with someone whom your donor was with has been much explored, falling in love with a ghost of your donor was quite strange. And films like these usually make me question my own sanity for having decided to watch it, Last Christmas however is an exception, I would think.

For many reasons, it did not get me to retch and I like the subjects it explored in the film. The songs are nice and relatable. It talks about the mental health of a person after an organ transplant surgery. One might not give it much of a thought and think that after surgery, the recipient gets back to 'normal' but the film shows that they could struggle emotionally and mentally as they adjust to the new organ from a complete stranger in their body. It gets you to think about it.

The film also addresses the issue of Brexit, migration and racial discrimination. Hence, the film is more than just a love story. And, I'd like to thank my friend for suggesting it to me. It just clicked with me, which is a rare occasion.

Directed by Paul Feig, the film also stars Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Emma Thompson and Michelle Yeon. The film is available for streaming on Netflix.

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