People don't usually expect much from Christmas movies, they are all more or less the same - plenty of Christmas music, nice atmosphere and warm stories. The trailer promised a whole lot of that, but the movie itself did not live up to my expectations, which were quite low to start with. The concept itself is quite okay, Katarina is working towards a better life after going through a heart surgery, but is generally a mess. Who isn't, by the way? This storyline is perfect for a Christmas movie, she meets a man (or more precisely, imagines a man), he helps her, everything is cool.
BUT the other storyline, relating to her Croatian roots is a bigger mess than she is. The opening scene, a children's choir in a church in Yugoslavia... well, we all know how plausible that is. I'll tell you anyhow - it is not. Not only because the religion was not "a thing" back then, but also because it says 1999. Yugoslavia was long gone by then. The language they speak throughout the movie is anything but, it was a messy hybrid between Croatian and Russian and Macedonian and I don't even know what other language. Also, if they all come from Croatia, how come her mother's Croatian is so much worse than her father's? The casting was done terribly in that sense. A Balkan actor for the father, but an English actress for the mother? I'll pass.
Also, her mother blaming Poles for the situation makes no sense at all, and neither does the fact that they curse at each other at the dinner table. We don't do that. The respect for other family members is a huge thing here, and we would certainly not say those things to our parents just out of the blue.
Finally, the choice of George Michael's songs did not fit the story points at all, it all seemed misplaced.
In my opinion, it is just not worth watching. Go watch Home Alone for a 1000th time, you'll have more fun at least.
Review of Last Christmas
Last Christmas
(2019)
Missed opportunity - from a fellow Croatian
13 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers