Last Christmas (film)

Katarina "Kate" Andrich, a young aspiring singer, bounces around between her friends’ places, and has a dead-end job as an elf at a year-round Christmas shop in Central London, whose strict but good-hearted Chinese owner calls herself "Santa". Whilst at work, she notices a man outside staring upward and strikes up a conversation, learning that his name is Tom Webster and his oft-repeated life wisdom is to "look up" for things that others seldom observe.

After an unsuccessful singing audition, Kate sees Tom again and they go for a walk, where he charms her with his unusual observations of London. Upon being evicted by her oldest friend, Kate is forced to return home to her parents, both Yugoslavian immigrants. Her mother Petra suffers from depression, and her father Ivan, a former lawyer, works as a minicab driver as he cannot afford to retrain to practice law in the United Kingdom. Kate feels suffocated by her mother, who dotes on her while neglecting Kate's older sister, Marta, a successful lawyer who is a lesbian but hides her sexual orientation from their parents.

Kate begins spending more time with Tom, who makes deliveries on a bike and volunteers at a homeless shelter, which she initially mocks. Looking for him, who often disappears for days at a time and says he keeps his phone in a cupboard, she begins helping at the shelter. Kate hopes to run into him, but finds that the staff have never met him.

While celebrating Marta's promotion, Kate spitefully outs Marta as a lesbian to their parents. Storming out, she then runs into Tom, who takes her back to his apartment. Kate reveals that, a year earlier, she was seriously ill and had to have a heart transplant. She says she feels half-dead and questions whether she has the talent to make it as a performer. After opening up to Tom, Kate tries to initiate sex. He declines, but does give her a kiss.

After spending the night with Tom, Kate begins taking small steps to improve her life; taking care of her body, setting up Santa with a Danish man who loves Christmas as much as she does, apologizing to Marta and her girlfriend, and singing Christmas songs to busk for money for the shelter. After a few days she runs into Tom again, who says he has something important to tell her, but she preemptively asserts he is fearful of commitment and walks away.

Kate continues to try to do good in her daily life. Finally, wanting to make amends with Tom, she returns to his apartment only to meet an estate agent who is holding viewings. He explains that the place has been vacant during the probate process.

After some initial confusion, he reveals that the previous owner was killed in a bicycle accident last Christmas, and Kate realizes that Tom was the organ donor whose heart she received. Going to the small garden, Tom's favorite place, Kate encounters him again. She realizes he is a ghost, he says his heart "was always going to be yours" and asks her in parting to look after it. The bench on which they sat on their visits to the garden is revealed to be his memorial bench.

On Christmas Eve, Kate organizes a show utilizing the talents of the people at the shelter and invites all of her friends and family, including the newly together Santa and her Danish admirer, and the estate agent she met at Tom’s apartment. Kate delicately performs a solo of the Wham! song, "Last Christmas", intertwined with flashbacks of her time with Tom, and revelry ensues when the curtain rises and she is joined by the band of shelter performers. The next day, Kate and her family celebrate Christmas together, joined by Marta's girlfriend Alba for the first time.

The Christmas celebration transitions to summer, where a visibly healthier Kate is seen writing in her diary on Tom’s memorial bench in the garden to which he introduced her. Smiling and happy, Kate looks up, as Tom always advised.

In addition, Andrew Ridgeley, from the duo Wham!, whose song "Last Christmas" is instrumental to the plot, has an uncredited cameo appearance in the audience at the end of the film.

In September 2018, it was reported that Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding would star in a London-set romantic comedy taking place at Christmas, titled Last Christmas. Paul Feig was set to direct, with Emma Thompson co-writing the screenplay.[5] In October, it was announced that Thompson would star as well, and that the film would feature the music of the late singer George Michael (who died in 2016), including "Last Christmas", and previously unreleased tracks.[6] In November 2018, Michelle Yeoh joined the cast of the film.[7] In November 2021, it was revealed that Harry Styles had been approached for the role of Tom, but declined it, stating that he felt he was "too young to take the role".

Last Christmas was filmed from 26 November 2018 to February 2019.[8][9] Filming locations included Piccadilly Circus, the Strand, Regent Street, the Thames Embankment, Covent Garden (where the Christmas shop is located), West London Film Studios, St Mary's Bryanston Square Church, Marylebone and the Phoenix Garden.[10][11] On 31 October 2019, Thompson and Wise published a collection of personal essays about the meaning of Christmas in a book also called Last Christmas. Contributors include Andy Serkis, Caitlin Moran, Olivia Colman and Emily Watson. The profits from the book went to two charities, Crisis and The Refugee Council.[12]

In the United States, the film was due for release on 15 November 2019, but was moved up a week to 8 November.[21] It was released on 15 November 2019 in the United Kingdom.[22]

• List of Christmas films

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