So last night Mrs. Wine and I watched a film neither of us had seen before called Last Christmas. We stumbled upon it a bit humorously: Mrs. Wine despises the Christmas song of the same name and while teasing her I came across the film. I played the trailer thinking it would have said song playing on an endless background loop but instead, we both thought, ‘Hey, this looks like a good movie.’ And it was a good movie. But more than a good movie, the film portrayed a character who was the most Christlike figure I’ve seen in cinema in a very long time.
Last Christmas is about a family of Yugoslavian refugees living in London. Specifically, it is about the daughter Katarina (Kate) who had what they thought was a promising singing career that was derailed when she became seriously ill. After surgery and a significant time in the hospital, she finally was “okay.”
However, since that time, she has been far from okay. Kate works as an “elf” in a year-round Christmas store in London. She is functionally homeless: every night she goes to a bar, gets very drunk, and then goes home with a complete stranger. In that way, she has a bed. She had been living with different friends but one by one, those bridges were burned by her destructive behavior of drinking and sleeping around.
While at work one day she meets the mysterious Tom Webster. He takes an interest in her and keeps wanting to take her on a stroll (his idea of a date). At first, she isn’t interested: he isn’t her type. Namely, he seems to have his life together while Kate’s life is a mess. Eventually, she concedes and they go on a stroll (clip below):
This clip is a good summary of everything I just talked about. You see Kate, suitcase in tow, agreeing to go on a date with him at night. She is hoping it will end with her having a place to stay but instead, Tom takes her to a bus where she goes home–the first step in a process of healing for her.
On their date, he continually tells her to look up and follow him and takes her to a secret garden where he proceeds to tell her about the failures and struggles of the other people in the garden and then lets her know that she is “one of them” now.
Thus begins a most unlikely courtship for films these days. Kate’s relationship with Tom completely changes her with the point of serious change coming from a moment of total honesty from her: after the surgery that saved her life, instead of being okay as everyone told her she would be, she feels “half alive.” At the end of this conversation, Kate tries to get Tom to go to bed with her but he refuses.
After this, Kate is completely changed (not immediately, but gradually. And as she changes, you can tell she is being healed in her mind and spirit. She begins volunteering at a homeless shelter. Her relationship with her boss and work ethic change following a suggestion from Tom to try being nice to her boss. She mends things with her estranged sister and parents. She makes up with her friends by restoring the property she had destroyed when her life was out of control. The culmination of all of this comes when she goes to a bar one evening and is drinking. The scene is set up like the start of the film, but when a stranger comes up to her and offers to buy her a drink, she declines and leaves the bar alone. By the end of the film, Kate has found contentment with her life. She is happy with her job at the Christmas store and has decided to pause auditioning for shows.
I’ll try to not spoil the film by leaving out some key details about the ending and who (or what) is Tom.
As I mentioned at the start, Tom is the most Christ-like figure I’ve seen in cinema in some time. I say this for several reasons: he urges her to mend relationships, he isn’t afraid to call out her destructive sleeping habits, he encourages her to be kind to people who are rude to her, and repeatedly tells her to “look up” and find wonder in the world that surrounds her. The way of life he tries to introduce her to leads Kate to dedicate her life to serving the hopeless and building a community for them.
But my ah-ha moment came when Tom was still pursuing Kate and trying to get her to go on a date. Kate understood they weren’t compatible. Tom obviously had his life “together” and Kate clearly did not. What did he see in her?
What does God see in me? Why does he relentlessly pursue sinners? What is it about the faithless, highly imperfect church, that makes God stand by her and call her his bride?
There is a concept in our culture called “marrying up.” Men will often say they “married up” meaning they don’t deserve their wife. We, the body of Christ, have “married up.” We don’t deserve him. And yet here he is, repeatedly appearing in our lives, encouraging us to follow him, look up, and love us when we are a hopeless wreck. Thinking about it is as confusing as watching someone who “has it together” pursue a messed-up person. And in the film Last Christmas, that is exactly what happens–and the love completely transforms and heals Kate. I doubt I’ll watch it again but in terms of a beautiful betrayal of redeeming love, it is at the top of my list of recommended films.
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