The Happiest Season Christmas Movie Review
A flawed, but charming, Christmas rom-com
By Jude Jordi-Donnelly, reporter
A flawed, but charming, Christmas rom-com
By Jude Jordi-Donnelly, reporter
A poster of Happiest Season featuring Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis and other lead cast. (Photo: Twitter/HappiestSeason)
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Christmas time is upon us and that means it's time to sit down with the family and put on some holiday season flicks. It's been a while since we’ve gotten a decent new Christmas movie, but Clea Duval’s Happiest Season (currently available on Hulu) has seemingly come out of nowhere and made this Christmas a little brighter. It follows a young woman named Abby as she prepares to propose to her girlfriend while at her family's house on Christmas, but soon learns that her partner has yet to come out to her parents.
I haven’t strayed too far from the Christmas classics over the last couple of years but Happiest Season is a refreshing take on the Christmas rom-com genre. Clea Duval did a wonderful job at the helm of this movie. While she treads the line of sappy and melodramatic, Duval keeps her film afloat with some hilarious writing and the development of a very entertaining family dynamic. The characters she’s written feel very lived in, as if they existed before the movie and continue to exist after, which is one of the best compliments that you can give to a writer. The amusingly passive aggressive dialogue between Abby’s girlfriend, Harper, and her family is great to watch. Kristen Stewart, who plays Abby, and Mackenzie Davis, who plays Harper, have great chemistry, and Kristen Stewart is particularly impressive. However, it's the side characters that steal the show. Mary Holland who plays one of Harper’s sisters has the funniest moments throughout the film, and a character arc that's almost more entertaining than the main plot. Abby’s friend John, who’s portrayed by Daniel Levy, is similarly hilarious, and often outshined whoever else he was sharing the screen with.
The film does however have its flaws. Harper, while well acted, was a very frustrating character. The decisions she makes, while understandable, made her increasingly difficult to get behind. The film is also fairly predictable. If you’ve seen any kind of rom-com, you’ll pretty much be able to tell what's gonna happen next in this movie, but that isn’t always a bad thing. Happiest Season deals with a pretty heavy issue that people all over the world can relate to. I have to praise Clea Duval for taking what could have been a depressing subject, and managing to make it enjoyable, funny, and heartfelt, while still taking it seriously.
I’ve never been a fan of rom-coms; in fact, I can probably count with my fingers on one hand how many I can say I genuinely like, and Happiest Season would be one of them. A Christmas movie that I think, with time, will become more and more people’s holiday season go-to, and is easily the best Christmas movie to come out in the last couple of years. Give it a watch this Christmas because I’m sure you’ll find something that it has to offer enjoyable.
Happiest Season gets a B+
I haven’t strayed too far from the Christmas classics over the last couple of years but Happiest Season is a refreshing take on the Christmas rom-com genre. Clea Duval did a wonderful job at the helm of this movie. While she treads the line of sappy and melodramatic, Duval keeps her film afloat with some hilarious writing and the development of a very entertaining family dynamic. The characters she’s written feel very lived in, as if they existed before the movie and continue to exist after, which is one of the best compliments that you can give to a writer. The amusingly passive aggressive dialogue between Abby’s girlfriend, Harper, and her family is great to watch. Kristen Stewart, who plays Abby, and Mackenzie Davis, who plays Harper, have great chemistry, and Kristen Stewart is particularly impressive. However, it's the side characters that steal the show. Mary Holland who plays one of Harper’s sisters has the funniest moments throughout the film, and a character arc that's almost more entertaining than the main plot. Abby’s friend John, who’s portrayed by Daniel Levy, is similarly hilarious, and often outshined whoever else he was sharing the screen with.
The film does however have its flaws. Harper, while well acted, was a very frustrating character. The decisions she makes, while understandable, made her increasingly difficult to get behind. The film is also fairly predictable. If you’ve seen any kind of rom-com, you’ll pretty much be able to tell what's gonna happen next in this movie, but that isn’t always a bad thing. Happiest Season deals with a pretty heavy issue that people all over the world can relate to. I have to praise Clea Duval for taking what could have been a depressing subject, and managing to make it enjoyable, funny, and heartfelt, while still taking it seriously.
I’ve never been a fan of rom-coms; in fact, I can probably count with my fingers on one hand how many I can say I genuinely like, and Happiest Season would be one of them. A Christmas movie that I think, with time, will become more and more people’s holiday season go-to, and is easily the best Christmas movie to come out in the last couple of years. Give it a watch this Christmas because I’m sure you’ll find something that it has to offer enjoyable.
Happiest Season gets a B+