Directed by: Clea DuVall
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Victor Garber, Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie, Mary Holland, Aubrey Plaza, Daniel Levy
The Happiest Season has the feel of a Hallmark Christmas movie except for the A-list cast and the inclusion of a lesbian couple in the forefront. This rom-com is saccharine, sterile, occasionally involving, and ultimately you are at a loss to remember much about it the next day...or even the next hour. Fortunately, the plot is easy to follow and everything is neatly resolved in the end. There is a certain level of comfort in that. If you expect anything else, you are watching the wrong movie.
The movie begins with a deliriously happy couple, Abby (Stewart) and Harper (Davis) enjoying the Christmas season in their idyllic town. They kiss, they declare their love for each other, and Harper invites Abby to spend Christmas with her family. This all sounds delightful and Abby picks out a wedding ring so she can propose to Harper on Christmas Day. However, and there's always a however, Harper confesses on the ride up she has yet to tell her parents that she is gay. How to handle this dilemma? Abby will pose as her straight roommate who wants to spend Christmas with a family since her parents died when she was nineteen. Abby reluctantly agrees after Harper promises to tell her parents "after Christmas". Fair enough, but Complications Ensue, as are wont to happen in movies like The Happiest Season.
One issue is Harper's father Ted (Garber) wants to run for mayor and Harper thinks having a lesbian daughter would kill his chances of winning. Another is Harper's mother Tipper (Steenburgen), who tries to keep everything classy. Another is the presence of Harper's former boyfriend Connor, who clearly wants her back and has no clue she is gay, and Harper's secret high school girlfriend Riley (Plaza), who Harper disavowed when their cover was nearly blown in high school. In a refreshing twist, Riley is not a vengeance-seeking woman scorned, but someone who intuits Harper's real relationship with Abby and lends a sympathetic ear. Riley is clearly still saddened by Harper's treachery and fears Abby may experience it some day when the chips are down.
There are other siblings with their own problems, which are more easily resolved than Harper's and Abby's, and subplots the movie could frankly do without. The actors provide as much appeal as they can muster with stock characters, even though Daniel Levy's role as Abby's customary gay friend John is not a million miles removed from his Schitt's Creek's David Rose. They make us care more than we should, even though The Happiest Season reminds us so much of a Hallmark movie that we keep waiting for the commercial breaks.
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