Happiest Season

"Ok. We can do this. It's five days. How bad can it be?"

If you're lucky Christmas was the most wonderful time of the year as a child. If you're even luckier you stay liking it into adulthood. For many though the weight of expectation is too much, family stresses feel magnified by proximity and the pressure to smile your way through it all can be a headwreck. Add alcohol and financial issues to the mix and it can be dynamite. But no matter how bad it gets just make sure you never hop a painting off your sister in front of everyone. That's always bad.

Christmas isn't Abby's (Kristen Stewart) favourite time of year and she usually spends it babysitting pets for her friends who're going home. This Christmas though she's with her girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis) and Harper adores this time of year. In a fit of romanticism Harper invites Abby to spend the holidays with her family. Against her better judgement Abby agrees and decides it's the perfect time to propose. There's a wee problem though. Harper hasn't told her parents (Mary Steenburgen & Victor Garber) she's gay and they are rather conservative. Sure what could go wrong? 

This is one of those films you know will become a festive fave in years to come. It deserves to. It's lovely, quotable, warm, funny, packed with great characters and family dynamics that feel real. It hits every beat you'd expect a Christmas film to hit and it feels a lot more inclusive than Christmas films tend to be. Yes it's all based around an upper class whiter than white family and it doesn't take many risks but enough jokes land to make it memorable (Dan Levy is priceless) and it ends on a note that feels really genuine. It also manages to avoid mawkishness and excessive sentimentality which is always a plus. That's not to say it isn't sentimental, it's a family Christmas film sure, but it doesn't wallow in it. It also never makes a big deal out of it's central pairing's sexuality either, a move that makes it feel quietly powerful. It's confident enough to just let them be a real couple with feeling the need to jam in silliness. Writer/Director Clea Duvall has a deft touch to her work. I can't wait to see what she does next.

What really makes it work is the family chemistry. Outwardly the family looks perfect, a look designed purposefully by patriarch and wannabe mayoral candidate Ted (Victor Garber) but inwardly you know it's going to be messy. There's plenty of that weirdness that family's have grown used to that outsiders pick up on straight away and that casual cruelty that's become so commonplace it isn't noticed anymore. They aren't nice to each other but they feel like they belong together. Then in rocks Abby and with her comes a welcome tension, one that humour is mined from and one that adds a nice bit of conflict that Stewart and Davis can get their teeth into. Stewart has been known to be a touch glacial onscreen but not here, all she wants here is to be happy. She does well leading a cast where everyone gets a moment to shine from Mary Steenburgen's karate confession to Alison Brie's (eldest sister Sloane) public freakout. Mary Holland as Jane, the middle sister will strike a chord with many too as she quietly steals the film away from everyone.

Happiest Season is streaming online now. It's really worth a watch. A feelgood Christmas watch for a year that badly needs one.