HAPPIEST SEASON (2020) – It’s not a wonderful life!

Happiest Season is yet another holiday romantic comedy which seems to be churned out by the dozens during this time of the year. The main thing that attracted me to this was that it stars Kristen Stewart. Here she plays a gay who gets invited to her girlfriend’s (played by Mackenzie Davis) family during the Christmas holidays only to find they had to keep their relationship a secret from everyone in the family. So, yes, we have yet another gay themed movie which preaches about acceptance of the gay community when confronted by a bunch of conservatives.

I am usually not into romantic comedies that much given that most are predictable, silly and badly acted. There are exceptions to the rules of course as with the case of Holidate which turned out to be lots of fun. Sadly, not the case for Happiest Season. The plot is unavoidably stupid but what makes this a painful watch is that most if not all the characters are so unlikeable, they are like people whom you would probably not want to meet in real life. The jokes are strained at best, and delivered with usually over-acting and not in a funny way. In fact everybody with the exception of Kristen Stewart, tended to overact here. Another crucial element for a successful romantic comedy is the chemistry of the love birds. Kristen and Mackenzie fail to ignite any fire on screen and in fact, I was even hoping they don’t get together at the end as they seem like they were not meant for each other. All holiday comedies must end on a happy note and this is of course a given. However, how everything resolves itself so amicably with all the characters turning over a new leaf at the final act is just something I find overly convenient and a case of lazy script writing.

Do yourselves a favour and give Happiest Season a miss if you are looking for a Christmas comedy to enjoy over the holidays.