Kate is a struggling young woman in London who works as an elf in a Christmas shop that stays open all year. She falls for a mysterious cyclist named Tom while she tries to fix her messy life. She also works through tension with her Yugoslav immigrant family and with life after a heart transplant. The movie is a holiday rom-com filled with George Michael and Wham! songs. A major twist about Kate’s heart donor drives the ending.
The film also puts immigrant identity and Brexit-era hostility on screen in clear ways. A bus passenger tells Croatian speakers to speak English or go back, and Kate pushes back by welcoming them and owning her heritage. Her sister Marta is a lesbian who is outed, then reconciles and brings her girlfriend Alba to Christmas. Kate’s growth includes volunteering at a homeless shelter. These identity and social threads are deliberate and visible, but they stay secondary to the romance and the heart-donor reveal.
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Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Last Christmas.
Woke representation / casting
The film is set in modern London, so a mixed cast fits the place. Still, identity is easy to notice on screen. Michelle Yeoh plays Kate’s capable shop boss and Henry Golding is the love interest. A lesbian sister brings her Black girlfriend to Christmas, and a small doctor role is played by a trans actress whose identity is not named in the story.
38%
Woke political dialogue
The script puts politics in plain spoken lines. A bus rider tells Croatian speakers to speak English or go back, and Kate answers by welcoming them and claiming her heritage. Family talk and background news also push Brexit-era immigrant fear and blame. Politics are not constant, but they are direct when they appear.
50%
Identity-driven story themes
The main engine is still a rom-com plus an organ-donor twist. Side storylines lean hard on identity, including refugee immigrant parents, second-generation pressure, and Marta’s lesbian outing, apology, and girlfriend at Christmas. Shelter volunteering is framed as moral growth. LGBTQ material is secondary but resolved with family acceptance.
55%
Western institutional / cultural critique
The film shows post-referendum Britain as a place where immigrants get harassed and blamed. Petra’s warning about how blame starts and the bus scene target that climate. It is not a deep attack on capitalism or Christianity. It is a soft critique of Brexit-era hostility.
44%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. Original story loosely inspired by a Wham! song and George Michael’s catalog with no identity-driven rewrite of established characters or historical figures.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Some critics and posts call the Brexit lines preachy or call the film woke nonsense. Those complaints are real but scattered. There was no large, lasting anti-woke campaign. The reaction is thin next to bigger culture-war fights.
18%
Creator track record context
Paul Feig often centers women and faced backlash for the all-female Ghostbusters. Emma Thompson is linked to liberal and feminist advocacy. George Michael is a major LGBT rights figure tied to the music. Together they lift the crew context above a neutral holiday team without making the film pure activist cinema.
54%
Production
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