“Last Christmas” (2019) is such a disappointment, it is unforgivable.

So what’s the twist for those of us who won’t be seeing it?

I could pretty much guess the twist just from the trailer.

For r1: last Christmas, Kate (Emilia Clarke) had a heart transplant and this Christmas she meets a man (Henry Golding) who turns out to be the ghost of that man who died and whose heart she received.

PS r3 is not me aka OP, for those that may get angry and start their F/F campaign lol

Ugh. From the previews, she seems awfully mobile for someone with a heart transplant

Well she’s had the transplant for a year now. So she’s grown used to it.

The twist is that he’s gay all along and she made all up the fantasy because she’s an ugly single frau desperately falling in love with a very handsome gay man

He’s dead

A real frau would love it unconditionally and uncritically.

The shocking twist is her she tests positive fir HIV. The heart was from a cum-dump Prep-er, and the regular tests for the virus failed.

I think I already saw that movie. It was called "Return to Me" with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver, in which Minnie gets the heart of David's deceased wife, and he falls in love with her. Doesn't anyone have any new ideas anymore?

Intriguingly, Emilia's eyebrows are as lush and bushy as Henry's.

I guessed right! Yay me!

They could have just expanded the now-hilarious Wham! video to feature length. So much fluffy hair!

R8 my theater was pretty packed, and it was 100% white people, almost all couples and few female pairings. But mostly married couples, and some of the women were crying so much. One was sobbing behind me.

So can other people see the ghost, or just her?

This is another film following the trend of using one artists music as its soundtrack.

“Blinded by the Light” being the most recent one previously.

I say BoRhap started this.

R14 it’s just her. We don’t know until the end because we only ever see him interacting with her. He can show up to her because she is holding his heart, so they have a connection now.

So does she become a lesbian ?

Lmao no r17. She’s still herself with a new heart but she admits she’s never felt the same since the transplant.

Her sister is a lesbian though.

R16 So, just like real life.

IRL, heart transplant recipients would have to take a lot of medication, right? She doesn’t even look like she takes an aspirin.

I’m a boring frau, but I rarely watch this type of movie. They bore the hell out of me.

That filipino guy is ugly as fuck.

Sorry, not a star.

Last Christmas

I gave you my heart

The very next day

You threw it away

(Is this a feature film version of a Hallmark Channel Christmas Movie?)

It literally says the movie is based on the song by George Michael

[Quote]Is this a feature film version of a Hallmark Channel Christmas Movie

Absolutely. This seems like the type of maudlin crap my mom would eat up. She loves those hallmark movies.

That's why it pisses me off that the commercials advertising this movie are calling it the "BEST MOVIE OF THE DECADE!!!"

They should be fucking SHOT for such dishonesty.

Lasht Chrishmash wash great!

It helped me git over my shcurvvy!

It didn't even get good reviews r25.

Henry Golding's collapse is complete.

He'll never be.... anything.

He is blandly handsome. She is blandly cute. Together they make oatmeal.

THAT’S what the George Michael song was about?? Well push me over with a feather, I thought it was just a breakup song.

I can't believe she dies at the end.

Henry is so handsome 😍

She doesn’t die at the end.

I can’t believe that she betrayed and hurt him so bad at the end. Having a heart transplant wasn’t a lame excuse

I just watched it, and its super cute, but the twist truly was lame.

Is it her last Christmas? His last Christmas? Their last Christmas? Does she see dead people?

Oh, my nerves.

^^ He just ghosts her in the end.

The scene in his apartment, when she opens up to him was beautiful. It felt very sincere and the acting was so good. That was the one scene that made me tear up a little.

Then the ending comes and you find out he’s been dead all along and she has his heart in her chest so they have an eternal connection, and you roll your eyes b

Romantic movies bore me.

If that’s the twist and this movie is based on Last Christmas then it doesn’t make any sense. The plot doesn’t fit with the lyrics. I was looking forward to this when they announced it but this thread and the reviews have put me way off. I’ll just pop on a bit of George instead. x

I get from the trailer that she is poor and struggling and sick and he is handsome and life-affirming and falls in love with her and it’s a fairy tale for der frauen.

Synopsis of the film.

R41 shes poor because she chooses to be pretty much. She could go move back home and get her shit together but after her heart surgery she doesn’t seem to care, eats wrecklessly now and drinks a lot. She has no drive anymore etc.

But after she meets him, he is a positive influence on her and she starts to get into good spirits and habits eventually etc.

So, the bitch is crazy? That's the twist?! Mother fucker!! FU Emma Thompson!!!

As soon as we saw the trailer, my partner and I both thought what R3 said. It was so blatantly obvious.

They really don’t look like they have the same blood type, implausible.

The asian movie trend is over.

Nobody is interested.

I found it odd she never acknowledged he was Asian. In one scene she is trying to describe him and says everything, from height to hair color but never says “Asian”, which would narrow it down a lot.

His last name in this is Warren.

"Dreck" -Rex Reed

"I'm going to the lobby for Snowcones, does anyone want anything?" -Roger Ebert

What movie theatres have snow cones, I want to go there.

[Quote] What movie theatres have snow cones, I want to go there.

Mine used to have chocolate chip cookies 😔

Movie aside, Last Christmas is truly the greatest Christmas song of all time. I just adore it, don’t you? x

Y'all got duped. This should have streamed on Netflix. I bet the numbers would be astronomical.

This will inspire next year’s big holiday Romcom movie that will take place in. Rwandan genocide refugee camp.

....

He’s a very handsome man

It's Wham too! Andrew must have felt betrayed.

They're ripping off that 90's movie with minnie driver but with a halloween aspect.

The whole Yugoslavian angle is odd.

Was that just an excuse for Emma to do an outlandish accent? I feel she's gotten hammy in recent years... even more hammy I mean... she's always had the capacity to go larger than life, but there's something out her lately that feels unhinged lol.

I want to make some lesbian pudding for the holidays!

Once you know she had a heart transplant wouldn’t the spoiler be in the first line of the song? Does she throw the transplant away the very next day? She doesn’t sing Last Christmas at the end, does she? I heard she sings. This sounds dreadful.

When I heard this was in production I was kind of looking forward to it - I thought it was going to be a nice rom-com mashup of Last Christmas and like The Waitresses song. Why do these filmmakers fuck stuff up so bad all the time? How do they get jobs?

Last Christmas has become a classic Christmas song and that is exactly what is should continue to be. A movie will only detract from the song.

George Michael wrote Last Christmas. Andrew was along for the ride on this.

[quote] It literally says the movie is based on the song by George Michael

Which apparently the screenwriters took literally too.

Except for the twist at the end. Never saw THIS coming!:

R63 omg that scene used to give me nightmares as a kid.

The NY Times - yes they're insufferable - said the two leads had 0 chemistry.

I really wish Emma Thompson would stick with adapting other people's stories or collaborate with other screenwriters. This hardly counts as an original story anyway since it's just the plots of other films cobbled together. Even the lead characters each have different attributes of the tired manic pixie dream girl trope. I like her, but everything she's written since she won the best screenplay Oscar has got progressively worse.

No one watched Return To Me. Get over it.

^^ Yes, because its main plot hung upon a silly conceit that no-one found very compelling, which is part of the whole point.

I’m ghosting this movie.

The Yugoslavian angle is so that Emma and her ilk can rag on Brexit as evil. The badly written plot has so many holes that you’d have to be a basic frau who’s into Hallmark movies to want to pay to see this in theater.

Heart transplant and any organ transplant patients are categorized according to severity of disease AND suitability of transplant. This means you are assessed very carefully for evidence to care for yourself and having solid support system so that organs are not wasted being transplanted in people who don’t give a fuck about lifestyle changes and choices or who don’t have psychosocial support system in place already. The more important the organ the more stringent these assessments are for patients and their families. That’s why it’s so hard to get hearts and livers.

Also, 1-2 years out from transplant, patients are on a cocktail of anti-rejection/ immunosuppressive meds including steroids that give them to certain degree moon face, a telltale sign of being on such meds. Conceivably I guess a patient in her mid to late 20s could look or be as active as EC in the movie, but highly unlikely being only less than 2 years out PARTICULARLY if she’s been abusing her body with drinking and eating junk food. You simply cannot do that while on post-transplant protocol, which also includes frequent health checks. IRL she would’ve had complications from her lifestyle AND her behavior would’ve been sussed out by transplant team who sees her regularly in clinic.

R57 Andrew apparently makes a cameo in it. Did anyone see him? The movie sounds awful and the lead actress makes my mouth hurt because she smiles so wide all the time. She was nauseatingly cutesy on Graham Norton. Thanks for letting me know the ending so I don't have to see it although I am curious how they used GM's music. Does he sing or does the actress sing?

[quote]Andrew apparently makes a cameo in it. Did anyone see him?

Yes. In a crowd scene at the end he's in a suit singing along to "Last Christmas". The camera lingers on him for a bit.

Do they play "Wake Me Up Before I Go Go" as she has to leap out of bed to the bathroom to take a dump? I never could understand that song -- that's how it could finally work!

Henry Golding is very good-looking, but does no one want to come out and say that he's an Asian guy whose features otherwise are similar to beauty/handsomeness standards are for a Caucasian male?

R70 what does Yugoslavia have to do with Brexit, most of the former Yugoslavian countries are not even in the EU?

R74 people don’t ever acknowledge that. Golding is considered a beauty of an Asian man, but you can’t acknowledge that he has white features (because he is mixed) because that is racist.

Same for people like Halsey or Halle Berry.

[quote]what does Yugoslavia have to do with Brexit, most of the former Yugoslavian countries are not even in the EU?

It was moreso about the anti-immigrant sentiment surrounding Brexit. It reminded her character of how she and her family were persecuted in Yugoslavia. She was afraid that history would repeat itself.

It looks like a Hallmark network movie. Why not just watch a Hallmark network movie?

I wanna see it

The twist is that he wants his heart back, and in a gruesome scene pulls it out of her chest Mola Ram style.

Anyone who’s seen Ghost will get what’s going on here the first time Henry’s character shows up.

Also, I think Emma must have used an app to make sure all the diversity boxes were checked from inter racial couples to trans to immigrant to homeless to handicap to old people to pregnant feminist.

So it’s a horror film right?

Emma Thompson has become insufferable in her old age. She's turned into the twee caricature she accused Audrey Hepburn of being.

What did she say about Audrey, R83?

R84, Thompson said Hepburn was twee, mumsy and couldn't really act.

Meh...

I'll wait until the movie version of "Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo".

HATE to be THIS guy but...I can't believe you actually spent money on this bullshit.

Fuck me, I got more entertainment outta this thread than I would seeing the film. Cheers!

Thompson is an insufferable luvvie hypocrite.

Does the gay ghost go cruising on Hampstead Heath.

Ivana see it.

R70 your post reminds me of why I had lost all desire to watch the show Shameless when I learned that the 50-something, alcoholic fuck-up of a dad gets a liver transplant. I know it's fiction, but still.

I kinda liked the movie. Certainly not a great movie. But husband and I have been stressed out by work, so this one was just fine. To me it wasn't 'such a disappointment'. Rotten Tomatoes already warned me with a score of 49%. 84% of viewers said they enjoyed it though. It was definitely a Hallmark movie, no more, no less. The only concerning thing is that I don't even apologize anymore to gravitate to these movies. I blame Trump.

R85 I can add that to the long list of reasons I hate Emma Thompson.

It's uncomfortable when they try to make unattractive ethnic actors the hot lead.

Is Thompson any good in this?

R95 = cunt. F&F

How much longer are they going to try to make a star out of Emilia Clarke?

I love Emilia Clarke

The only thing I know of Emilia Clarke is what I've seen of her in the trailer for this movie. She reminds me of Lilly james, though, who is another eager-to-please, always smiling actress who gets on my last nerve.

She's like a child actor. No real skill but trying to get by on being cute, grinning maniacally and exaggerated, basic expressions. She'll never be a film star. Better hustle back to TV and try to get another series. The UK version of Mila Kunis, who is another non-talent getting by on basic roles that require nothing.

Or maybe her best bet would be to pull a Leslie Mann and marry a writer/director/producer who will put her in everything he does.

Leslie Mann was just in “Motherless Brooklyn”, which has nothing to do with her hubby

It would have been much better is the twist had been that he was a female to male trans with a second last minute twist were she turns out to be a male to female trans

R103 is a literal moron

R77, the word you were looking for is "more."

R73, It's Wake Me Up Before *You* Go-Go.

I saw "Return to Me" and thought it was sweet.

[quote]Last Christmas, I gave you my heart [quote]But the very next day you gave it away [quote]This year, to save me from tears [quote]I'll give it to someone special

How many hearts does he have?

I don't understand all the hate for Emma Thompson!

I love Emilia Clarke’s eyebrows. They give me caterpillar vibes. Who doesn’t love caterpillars? x

Saw it today and must admit I loved it. I cried a few times during the movie especially the last scene. Henry is so handsome

R110 = Henry Golding's mom.

Henry Golding is the first Asian breakout mainstream romantic leading man because he's not "Asian Asian." Discuss.

R112 Not much to discuss, he is a half-breed (thats all I ever heard) and as such benefits from the mix of asian with caucasian genes.

He looks 99% Asian too me

[quote]He looks 99% Asian too me

You look 100% moron to me.

R76, it's the mix itself that makes them gorgeous. That's why someone like Vanessa Williams was far beautiful than some standard, white midwest frau.

And BTW, R76: Have you ever seen African women? Not African-American. Some of the most beautiful women because no white got in there "but that's racist." Incredible features and skin. A work of art.

It only made 10 million on 3500 screens in the US.

R117 but Africans from different parts look different.

Saw the film this afternoon and nearly threw my bottle of coke at the cunt in the front row who turned her phone on (full brightness) and was looking at Instagram during the BIG PLOT REVEAL. But the spirit of forgiveness came over me so I just waited until she was getting into the revolving doors and pushed the door so she got her foot stuck.

Anyway, the more I think about it the more I'm irritated by the shortcomings.

WHY DOES KATE LIKE GEORGE MICHAEL SO MUCH? Why does she have his photo on her suitcase and his posters on the walls? The family came to the UK after 1999 so after the toilet incident so would they have been happy having their daughter idolise A MAN WHO HAS SEX IN PUBLIC TOILETS?? Surely a throwaway line about when the family came to the UK as refugees his songs helped her learn English or something like that. But the songs were totally detached from the plot.

WHY DID KATE NEED A HEART TRANSPLANT AND WHY ISN'T SHE ON MEDICATION. No explanation as to how long she'd been ill, was it a sudden illness, had she been ill a long time? Really badly done.

Anyway, let's do the diversity checklist

Black characters - CHECK - the pregnant woman's husband, the mixed race guy at the homeless shelter

Asian characters - Henry Golding and Michelle Yeoh, the estate agent, goldfish man, pregnant friend

Trans - CHECK - the doctor was played by Rebecca Root

Gay - NOT CHECKED - possibly the estate agent who was with a male friend at the talent contest. I suppose George himself could be the solitary homosexual tokenism.

Lesbian - CHECK - sister and cameo by Sue Perkins

Refugee - CHECK - Emma Thompson and whole family

Disabled - CHECK - homeless volunteer in wheelchair

Mixed race couple - CHECK - pregnant couple, sister and girlfriend, Emelia & Henry

Muslim - NOT CHECKED - possibly the pregnant wife of the black guy was a muslim but where was her hijab?

Still, I did like the line about lesbian pudding.

So it's like Vice but with nice people?

If it was really based on the George Michael song, wouldn't she rip the transplanted heart out and throw it away the very next day?

Which sounds more Dario Argento than Hallmark Special, but whatever.

How does a movie like this get over 122 replies?

Fraus and gays in denial about having frau tastes, R123.

[quote][R117] but Africans from different parts look different.

And so do Europeans.

My point was that there are ugly and beautiful people on this planet. Every person of a certain race isn't gorgeous or ugly. And mixed people can be ugly or gorgeous. There is no one race where every single member is one or the other.

So how does she find out he's a ghost? If no one else can see him can he go into women's locker rooms and watch them change and shower? What happens when she finds out? Does he stay with her or go to heaven or turn into mist and then she forgets all about in like in The Bishop's Wife?

Who plays the Glady's Cooper role?

And why doesn't he simply read her the riot act when he sees what a lazy depressive she is? You know I can't believe you got my fucking heart you undeserving bitch kind of thing.

[R126] Her first suspicion comes when he fucks her and can't touch the sides, but as she'd recently pulled a train for the local rugby team she puts it down to coincidence. Later on, she loses her temper and screams that she'll put him through the fucking wall if he ever fucking does that again. "All right, all right," he mutters and walks through it himself.

[quote]Does she see dead people?

No, bitch, I can!

Why is Emilia struggling to get work and settling for garbage films like this? She’s proven herself to be a talented actress, she’s beautiful, she’s young, and she gets asses in seats. What gives?

Do Hallmark movies have non white people or mixed race couples in them? Especially at Christmas? What about gay people and ax murderers?

SPOILER ALERT FOR R126

After some random meets on park benches and in shops The Ghost eventually takes Emelia Clarke back to his immaculately presented studio flat in central London and lets her sleep there.

Eventually she goes back to the flat to look for him and the estate agent is getting ready to show people around and she learns from the agent that the previous owner died and she has a Sixth Sense realisation that all the previous occasions she met him he was a ghost and she was talking to herself on park benches and walking down the street. How she got INTO the flat wasn't answered.

What a weirdly dark twist for a schlocky hallmark film. Weird and alienating.

"IT IS UNFORGIVABLE!!"

Mary!

I really like the movie. I cried a few times during the movie especially the last scene. Henry can fuck me anytime he wants. The guy is so fucking hot.

I have to say I'm shocked he's a star, because I thought he was aiming for journalism. I used to see him on the Travel Show on the BBC. I didn't think he was trying to be an actor.

I wonder if Melanoma saw a ghost when she had her kidneys transplanted?

Does he sleep there as well? Does he cook for her? If not doesn't she ask him where he spends the night? If he died and they are showing it wouldn't they have cleared his stuff out? Wouldn't it creep people out to see a dead man's stuff everywhere? Or are they desperate for the place? Or when she goes back to see him has the place just been cleared out? And how did he die? Gruesome accident? Disease? Does he look pale? What did he do to have an immaculate flat in central London? Were people staring at her when she was walking all over London interacting with someone who wasn't there?

I need my soap opera ghost movies to make sense.

R31 don't worry. They go to Titanic Heaven.

SPOILERS For R137

He died after he was cycling through London and was hit by a vehicle. He told her he works nights volunteering at a homeless centre.

The only possession in his flat when the estate agent is showing it round is his iPhone - the ghost tells Emelia that it's locked in a box. There's no mention of his family or previous life but people cared enough to put a plaque on a park bench in memory of him.

The more I think about it the more stupid it becomes.

Does the plaque read "In memory of that random hot Asian guy we should have fucked while he was alive oh well"?

I like this review -it calls the film 'a festering, radioactive turd'

Sexy AND classy

Still thinking about it, possibly the worst scene was when Emilia turns up at the homeless shelter and looks for Tom, and is unable to describe him as "the really good looking, tall, half Chineseish guy with perfect skin".

It's a good rom com with a warm heart. I hope it makes good money. But Henry has the worst £10 haircut in this movie.

Another piece of merchandise to be sold for Christmas. I hate this kind of shit.

I went to see it after I spoiled the ending and read the "twist" here

Weird, but knowing sooner made me cry EARLIER. The scene where he takes her to his apartment and she collapses on the floor and he ends up touching her open heart scar just made me turn on the water works BECAUSE I KNEW.

And the funniest line in the movie, "so what did they call you, crumpet? Sausage roll?" [Michelle Yeoh is delightful in light comedy.]

And for all the folks that call this a high budget Hallmark movie, a Hallmark movie would not have a happy, successful lesbian couple in it. Or addressed Croatian War refugees.

It was like watching it for the second time without a first time.

I really liked it. [ And in the back of my mind I wanted Constance Wu cast in stead of Emilia...Crazy Christmas Asians...]

Emilia was perfectly casted. What are you talking about? Wu looks too bitchy for the role. Henry is just perfect, handsome and sweet 😍

Although I disliked the film, I'm somewhat in awe of the fact that they took such a ridiculous premise (an extremely literal interpretation of a line from a Wham! song), made a film out of it, and actually managed to PROFIT.

Don't get bent out of shape, it hasn't made zilch in profit yet. It will be lucky to break even. The production budget was $25 million, they have to make 2.5 times that (at least) to profit.

Asia

What about Asia? It's not being released in China. Nothing else factors. Universal pulled it from 1000+ theaters in the US after last weekend. This is its death rattle.

Looks like a piece of shit. If Thompson wrote that, how could she have written other screenplays attributed to her, like Sense and Sensibility? Or maybe she's lost her mind now and has dementia?

Seriously, R151? Why isn't it released in China?

The two of them have no chemistry, the guy isn't cute at all

Thompson didn’t write it, the playwright Bryony Kimmings did. Thompson came up with the story and is credited as co-writer but Kimmings wrote most of the actual screenplay.

Well, that's somewhat reassuring, R155. A stupid story nonetheless.

Another flop for horsey Emma Thompson.

That Netflix film Thompson did with Mindy Kaling was EXCRUCIATING

It’s funny that Clarke turns out to have the biggest Hollywood career out of all the GoT women because she was the worst actress.

R159 just you wait for my breakthrough performance as Mia Farrow in Kenneth Branagh's Agatha Christie's Death On The Nile

I think Clarke is on borrowed time. Her films are all flops. She'll only get so many chances.

The budget is $25 mils and has made $53.3 as of Nov 26

They don't get 100% of the box office, duh.

This movie is still doing very well in the UK. The "it's so bad it's good" and "there's a twist like The Crying Game but it doesn't involve a penis" word of mouth is getting the punters in. I heard 2 frumpy women discussing it in a coffee shop and one told the other "make sure you take tissues with you" and I had to stop myself from saying "but Henry Newman doesn't get naked?"

Hadley Freeman gets it spot on.

Released on Nov 8 n has made $86 mils worldwide as of December 12

They could've benefited from two things: not marketing it on the basis of the George Michael. song and including male nudity from the asian guy. Those two things alone would've saved this movie.

Male nudity from an Asian guy is of course the basis for all traditional Christmas movies. How could they have overlooked this?

R166 with a budget of 25 mil n has made 86 mil in a month and 5 days so no it doesn’t need to be saved in any sense whatsoever

R167 Hey, all I'm saying is A Christmas Story would've been a lot more interesting if we'd seen some peen.

I would have settled for a nice butt shot.

Emilia Clark and Last Christmas get a happy ending, thanks to foreign box office results.

[quote] Universal’s “Last Christmas,” a romantic comedy starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding, surpassed $100 million in global ticket sales. The milestone is a win for original fare, one that is especially impressive considering the movie was skewered by critics for its wacky twist ending.

[quote] After six weeks in theaters, “Last Christmas” has earned $34.4 million in North America, as well as $66.5 million from 64 foreign markets at the international box office. The film carries a $25 million price tag, meaning it should bring back a tidy sum for the studio. “Last Christmas” debuted in early November to $11.4 million and slowly chugged along at the domestic box office, staying in the top 10 for five consecutive weeks.

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