Christmas 2020 Reviews: Day 10 - Happiest Season (2020)

Happiest Season is monumental, because it's the first mainstream Christmas film about an LGBT+ couple.

Abby (played by Kristin Stewart) is prepared to spend Christmas on her own, which she has done ever since her parents died when she was young. Her Christmas-loving girlfriend of one year, Harper (played by Mackenzie Davis) is sad to hear this and impulsively invites Abby to spend Christmas with her and her family. On the drive there though, Abby is shocked to find out that Harper hasn't actually come out to her family yet, due to her parents conservative nature and career goals. She wants Abby to pretend that she is just her flatmate, nothing more.

Abby pretends to be straight for Harper's sake, while coming to the realisation that Harper's family aren't as "perfect" as they portray themselves to be.

This is one of the better Christmas films I have seen this year. As someone who mainly watches made-for-TV content when it comes to this blog, it's so refreshing to see a film with a good budget, a script that is well-written and not entirely formulaic, that has interesting, likeable characters played by talented actors.

The only Kristin Stewart performances I had seen prior to this were her role as Bella Swan in the Twilight franchise (where she was never very good) and as Melinda Sordino in the 2004 Speak, an underrated film in which she gives a strong performance in a tough role. With that in mind, for me, Stewart's best performance was as Abby in this film. It was nice for me personally to see her in a more natural, relatable role, and I was pleased to find that she is incredibly likeable, as well as a gifted actress.

There are three side characters in this film who really elevate the entire thing. They are Jane (played by Mary Holland, who also co-wrote the script with Clea DuVall, the director), John (played by Dan Levy) and Riley (played by Aubrey Plaza).

From left to right: Mary Holland as Jane, Dan Levy as John, and Aubrey Plaza as Riley.

Let's start with John, because he is the lightest one for me to talk about. Dan Levy completely steals every scene he is in, and nails every line he is given. He's hilarious when he needs to be, and also moving and thoughtful when he's supposed to be. I haven't seen Levy in anything else at the present, but I know he co-created the critically acclaimed show Schitt's Creek with his father Eugene Levy, which they both star in. I would be a lot more interested in seeing that and any other projects from Levy, now that I've seen what he can do as a performer. He is remarkably likeable.

Aubrey Plaza as Riley broke my heart a bit. I'm straight as an arrow, but if a Riley happened to come into my life, I may bend a little bit. She's so kind and interesting. Plaza is fantastic in this role, as Harper's secret ex who befriends Abby, and tells her about her own experience pretending to be straight while dating Harper in high school. She deserved better than what she got, that's all I can say.

Despite my enjoyment for many aspects of this film, there were some things I really didn't like, and even felt uncomfortable with. Continuing on with the stream of characters I enjoyed, I need to talk about how this film treats Jane, Harper's sister. Jane left me with a stronger impact than I thought she would. She's a deeply lovely character, who is talented and always trying to help everyone else, but her family completely overlooks this because she's socially awkward, as she doesn't always respect personal space boundaries, and speaks excitedly about her passions when nobody else really cares for them. Because of behaviours such as these, she doesn't fit in with her family's high-achieving standards.

When she first appeared onscreen, I was worried that Jane would be one of the worst aspects, because she's a "quirky" character. I think anyone who has ever seen a film or TV show knows how annoying this trope can be when done wrong. Characters like that need to feel genuinely human while being funny in order to work, which a lot of films miss the mark on. Jane isn't a "quirky" character though, she's a genuine individual within this plot, and I really liked her. This brought out one of my main issues with the film though.

Now, this may entirely personal, but considering the response I have seen online agreeing with this theory, Jane reads to me as being autistic. As someone with autism, I saw a lot of myself in Jane. She doesn't understand social cues all the time, can be blunt, but has a very sweet world view and deep passions, such as a book series she's writing, and a painting she made someone for Christmas, which was really good. However, everyone constantly disregards Jane, particularly her family, and I found it frankly devastating, bordering on triggering, at times. They would patronise her, or be outright intolerant of things she had to say. I found it really stressful, because Jane isn't an annoying character. Instead, I found her family really annoying because I couldn't understand why they treated her so openly like the family failure. Since the films release, there have been several articles dedicated to her, saying that she is the best part of the film. It feels like this film wants us to laugh at her, but I just cannot understand why. It's not like she's Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, or Alice Tinker in The Vicar of Dibley, odd women who we laugh at alongside other characters who don't understand them, but still care about them. By not even trying to understand her, Jane's family become mean and ignorant, so I did not enjoy spending much time watching them. I'm really happy about the ending this character got though.

Now, it's great that we now have a mainstream film with lesbian lead characters, where they're able to have fun, and it's a romance, without them having to suffer dramatically for the sake of a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. However, there still is more suffering than I would have liked.

I really didn't like that a key plot point of this film involves our main couple pretending to be straight, especially in Abby's case. It's a really big sacrifice for her to hide this aspect of herself when she's always been allowed to be open about it before, and honestly, there's no real payoff for her doing so. The reason she agreed to spend Christmas with Harper's family was because before she knew Harper wasn't out to them, Abby was planning to ask her father for his permission to propose to her. With Harper's family thinking she's only Harper's flatmate, Abby receives polite words from them now and then, but no one makes a real effort with her. At times, they're actually very inconsiderate and rude, which I understand creates obstacles for Abby to overcome, and happens for comedic value, but really, watch the film and tell me what Abby actually gets out of this arrangement. I think she deserved better than what she got. There's a scene where for comedic reasons, she is literally forced to hide in a closet. We get it. This likeable character isn't allowed to be her authentic self for the majority of the film. It sucks.

Back in 1967, the classic film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was released. It was one of the first films to positively depict an interracial relationship, with a young white woman wanting to marry an older black man. Their families didn't approve, particularly the father of the white woman, but as the film progresses, everyone comes to understand each other. This was controversial at the time, the idea of people of two different ethnicities marrying, so to have the white woman's parents be the main characters rather than the two main people it concerned made sense, because the audience could grow and learn alongside the parents. One year later, the first kiss between a white person and a black person on TV was aired on Star Trek.

Why do I bring this up? Well, part of me understands that because this is the first film of it's kind, it makes sense to have Harper come from an overly conservative family. That way, like with the parents in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, they can learn and grow with Harper's family. At least, in theory. The audience who would need to be educated don't get a chance to learn and grow with Harper's family, because the plot has Harper and Abby in the closet until about the last twenty minutes of running time. Without going into spoiler territory, the way everyone does inevitably find out is actually horrible and unforgivable.

Also, it's not the 1960s anymore. It's 2020. We really should have progressed to the point by now where it's okay to show two women in love celebrating Christmas together with one of their families.

Speaking of being horrible, I think Harper and her family (Jane not included) are really toxic, and I'm still not sure how to feel about them. I have seen Mary Steenburgen in many roles, and this is the first time I've seen her as an unlikeable character. She pulls it off, but I don't know how to feel about it because it's against every other role I've ever seen her play. She is entertaining every time her iPad has to make an appearance though.

Another actress I like, Alison Brie, is also unfortunately really unlikeable as Sloane, Harper's older sister. She and Harper have this really weird rivalry, which is supposed to be funny, but when you've already got two women who aren't allowed to be themselves, seeing another pair of grown women being pit against each other doesn't feel great. Again, Jane also suffers because of this and it isn't fair.

Sloane has two children who do something that affects Abby negatively, which I won't spoil, but why they do it is never revealed, and the conclusion to this plot point is completely irrelevant.

I actually don't mind Ted (played by Victor Garber) that much. He was patronising to Jane like everyone else, and his initial reaction to a couple of key plot revelations is pretty bad. However, out of Harper's relatives, he is probably the second most-likeable after Jane. He's welcoming of Abby, and clearly cares very much about his family, although unfortunately we don't see as much of him as I think we should to build a truly strong opinion of him.

Then there's Harper. Oh Harper.

I liked Harper at the start of this film. She and Abby seemed like a really cute couple, as they toured a neighbourhood of festive-decorated houses together.

Then as soon as she was driving Abby to her house, she just slowly got worse and worse, to the point where I wanted Abby to choose someone else (any one of the top three characters I glowingly mentioned above would do). She puts distance between her and Abby throughout the film; she has an oddly intense rivalry with one sister and is completely dismissive of the other one; she did something awful to another character when she was younger and without spoiling too much, when her true sexuality is shared, she denies it repeatedly which leaves Abby heartbroken. While that last point is pretty bad, I think the worst one is actually how she goes out several times with her ex-boyfriend, leaving Abby on her own. One night she stays out until 2am, and when Abby tries to talk to her about it the next morning, she calls Abby clingy. I'm sure she was lashing out because of the stress of being around her family while she's keeping her sexuality a secret. However the film doesn't try to justify it that way, and it just feels really mean from Harper's end. I'm sorry, but at the end of it all, I did not think that these two were a good couple. Maybe what they stand for is important enough to some people to forgive these things, but really, Abby deserved to be loved consistently.

My reaction to the comedy was mixed. I really think it was the execution of it from the actors that made it work best, than the strength of it in the script.

Also, this is a very minor gripe, but I don't like the title of this film. It suggests nothing about the tone of the film, or genre, or what it's really about, only loosely suggesting it is Christmas related. I do kind of wish the tagline on the poster had been "Don we now our straight apparel", instead of "This holiday, come out and meet the family", but it might just be me who finds that funny.

When I watched this film, I thought I enjoyed it. Yet I found this review really hard to write and put it off for about a week after seeing the film, because I couldn't think of which positive things I wanted to talk about first. In writing the negative issues I had with this film, I realised that this film isn't as good as I had hoped, or had originally convinced myself it was, and that's sad. I think I let the hype my LGBT+ friends had for this film get to me, and I hope they won't be disappointed by it, because I know what this film could mean to some people.

Overall, it is the performances that really make this film thrive, especially those from Stewart, Levy, Holland and Plaza, and for them, I would re-watch this one day. However, I think the main concept of this film is rather outdated, and Harper and her family are unfortunately really unlikeable for a lot of the film. However, it is an important film, and if my descriptions of the good characters and performances aren't enough to convince you to watch it, then it may be worth checking it out based on its cultural impact alone. It's flawed, but it's still much, much better than a lot of the Christmas films I've viewed so far this year.

THE SCOREBOARD

Would I recommend this film? Yes.

Christmas quote of the film: "I want to wake up with you on Christmas morning. And if that doesn't convince you to love Christmas, I'll never bring it up again." - Harper

Film rating: 6/10