For me, Christmas movies tend to fall into two camps, both of which I’m pretty happy with. We’ve got the watch-a-billion-times classics such as The Holiday, Love Actually and Arthur Christmas that become part of the fabric of our Christmas traditions and then we have the overdosed-on-sugar, over-the-top schmaltzy gems that are so bad that they are good, although you probably wouldn’t want to watch them more than once. The question is, which camp will Last Christmas fall in to?

With a self-imposed estrangement from her family, namely her overbearing Yugoslavian mother, and a talent for burning bridges wherever she goes, it quickly becomes apparent that Kate (Emilia Clarke), a former choir girl with dreams of a successful stage career, is something of a hot mess with little to no self-control in her life. Now working year round in a Christmas store dressed as an elf, complete with fur trimmed hat and bells on your shoes, is enough to make anyone a little cranky but Kate’s poor decision-making and abrasive, almost self-pitying attitude stems from mysterious health issues that are drip-fed to the audience as the story progresses.

Whether it is the death of a friend’s goldfish, the robbery of her boss’s business or outing her sister as a tense family dinner, Kate’s impulsive and insensitive behaviour is destructive to the people around her, but when Kate meets Tom (Henry Golding), a kind but mysterious stranger with an aversion to technology and an appreciation for the unseen beauty of London – “Look up!” – she starts to let her guard down, learn a little self worth and give back to the people around her.

And whilst Last Christmas has all the essence of a typical romantic comedy, there is a twist that acts as something of a point of difference although (if I’m completely honest) it does fall a little flat and is rather embarrassingly cringeworthy, before the film culminates in a safe and predictable sing-along ending.

I have something of a love/hate relationship with Emilia Clarke, I like her in a lot of what I’ve seen her in – Game of Thrones, Me Before You, Solo – but I don’t really rate her much as an actress, and her turn as self-absorbed scrounger turned selfless do-gooder Kate is quirky and fun to watch, but almost instantly forgettable.

Henry Golding is suave and charming in his role as Tom – everything the leading man in a romantic comedy should be – but the character feels a little underwhelming and Golding is not given the time, space or script to really shine or make an impact. The chemistry between Clarke and Golding also feels a little lacklustre, although this may ultimately be a deliberate choice given the path the storywriters chose to take.

The usually impeccable Emma Thompson unfortunately gets it wrong here in her role as Kate’s mother, Petra, with a performance that looks like the well-meaning but slightly mishandled maternal affection that every mother must exude but sounds like a forced, perhaps even slightly insensitive, caricature of racial stereotypes.

Given Thompson’s usual brilliance, and the film’s attempt to use Brexit and homelessness as plot points to promote a message of unity, inclusion and belonging, I may have been persuaded to forgive this slight misstep if they hadn’t done the same thing with Michelle Yeoh as Kate’s boss, the self-titled Santa.

On the surface there are a lot of individual elements to like about this film; it’s fun and well-paced, the soundtrack is bursting with music from Wham! and George Michael and London looks as picture perfect as a Christmas Hallmark card, but unfortunately it just doesn’t come together for me.

Now I am very conscious that if this was any other run-of-the-mill Christmas film I would probably react fairly positively overall, I mean there isn’t anything inherently wrong with Last Christmas as such, but given that the story, inspired by Wham!’s timeless Christmas classic, was penned by Emma Thompson and directed by ‘Bridesmaids‘ mastermind Paul Feig, there is an inherent expectation that the film should deliver something more.

You would think that this would be the best gift under the tree but instead it winds up being a beautifully wrapped lump of coal at the bottom of your stocking. I don’t know what we did in 2019 but we definitely ended up on Santa’s naughty list.

Last Christmas is available* to stream on Netflix

The Rig is available to watch on Amazon Prime*

*At the time of publishing.