Lovely to look at but plot is humbug

Last Christmas 12A, 103 mins

If there’s one time of year when the milk of human kindness can be aggressively sweetened with saccharine sentimentality, it’s Christmas.

Dame Emma Thompson and co-writer Bryony Kimmings merrily spoon on the sugar to their seasonal romantic comedy while Bridemaids director Paul Feig unwraps cliches to a soundtrack of George Michael’s hits.

His music is timeless and beautiful, providing gentle emotional crescendos on screen.

Alas, the narrative twist on which the film precariously hangs is glaringly obvious and illogical.

The film’s emotionally scarred heroine, Kate, played by Emilia Clarke, is thoroughly unlikeable and unsympathetic for the opening hour a la Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

Thompson and Kimmings set themselves the impossible task of redeeming her in time for a tinsel-bedazzled redemption set to the bouncy title track.

Thirtysomething hot mess Kate ricochets between auditions for West End stage roles while fitfully holding down a job as a sales elf at the Yuletide Wonderful shop in Covent Garden.

Her boss Santa (Michelle Yeoh, below with Clarke) implores her to take pride in her work but Kate is blinkered to the destruction she leaves in her wake.

Staring out of the shop’s window one morning, she is drawn to handsome stranger Tom (Henry Golding), who volunteers at a homeless shelter. He is selfless, sensitive and socially conscious — everything Kate is not — and shepherds her on a tour of historic back alleys to prove she spends too much time engrossed in a touchscreen. Tom’s wholesome influence compels Kate to think of others.

Last Christmas cloys and contrives when it should charm and serenade. Clarke and Golding are an exceedingly attractive pairing and Yeoh is hysterical in a rare comic role. Feig’s film, though, is a bauble — beautifully decorated and easy on the eye but hollow.