Watched Love Actually to death? Consumed The Holiday more times than you’d care to admit? This year, switch up your festive viewing with a brand new romantic comedy — Happiest Season.
This refreshing film, starring Kristen Stewart (Charlie’s Angels), Mackenzie Davis (Dirty Diana) and Dan Levy from Schitt’s Creek, turns the rom-com genre on its head.
Meeting your girlfriend’s family for the first time can be tough. Planning to propose at her family’s annual Christmas dinner – until you realise that they don’t even know she’s gay – is even harder.
Happiest Season centres around Abby (Stewart), an arts graduate who learns that her girlfriend Harper (Davis) has kept their relationship a secret from her family. Abby begins to question the girlfriend she thought she knew while navigating a brand new family and their various quirks.
The film is being praised for hilariously capturing a range of emotions tied to wanting your family’s acceptance, being true to yourself, and trying not to ruin Christmas.
Starring alongside Levy, Stewart and Davis is an all-star cast of Mary Steenburgen (Zoey’s Playlist and hello, Parenthood!), Victor Garber (Alias), Alison Brie (Glow), Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation), Jake McDorman (The Right Stuff) and Mary Holland (Hoops) — who is an absolute stand-out as Jane.
The movie is as relatable as it is endearing and proves that no matter who you are or where you’re from, everyone’s family is, well, a little messed up.
It’s no secret, like every other rom-com, that all will be fine in the end and Davis herself says there is comfort in that.
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, she said: “There’s something so nice about watching a Christmas rom-com and knowing it ends with everything being fine. I’m OK to go along this journey, and I can be scared when they fight, and I can be sad at this moment, and I could laugh, but ultimately, there’s this certainty that it concludes [and] it’s so nice to know that everything’s gonna be OK in the end.”
Actor-turned-director Clea DuVall, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mary Holland, told the outlet that in her experience, LGBTQ+ characters were always just “in the background” and she wanted to be the person to change that.
“I’ve always been such a huge fan of holiday movies, but … if there was an LGBTQ+ character in a holiday film, they were always in the background or just sort of thrown in to diversify an otherwise ‘normal’ family,” DuVall said.
“Once I had transitioned into writing and directing, I realised that I could be the person who made that movie, and it was this very powerful, inspiring moment.”
The story arc, which essentially flung the main character of Abby back into the closet, was an important one for DuVall to tell.
“Homophobia is not gone. Aggression towards LGBTQ+ people is not gone. So to anyone who’s saying ‘Aren’t we past coming out?’ No. It is a big deal. There are still people who are in the closet, and they are f— terrified. … [So] to be able to tell a story about someone coming out that is not a tragedy, that is a comedy, that is warm and bright and hopeful, that has a happy ending, is so important.”
Watch Happiest Season in cinemas now.