Happiest Season

By: Pauline K

While Happiest Season is most definitely not the only romantic comedy within sphere of Christmas movies, it is the first large-scale Hollywood production featuring a lesbian couple as the main characters. Directed by Clea DuVall, the movie features acclaimed actors Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Aubrey Plaza, Dan Levy, Mary Holland, Victor Garber and Mary Steenburgen making for a jolly good time with heartfelt performances.

The movie opens up by showing us Abby (Stewart) and Harper’s (Davis) relationship timeline, eventually moving to the couple strolling a neighborhood readily decorated for Christmas one year later. There, after a thrilling adventure of climbing a roof and almost being caught, Harper asks Abby to come back home to her parents’ house for Christmas with her. Although not being very fond of the holidays since her parents passed away when she was a teenager, Abby agrees to meet her girlfriend’s family, planning to propose while visiting. On the drive over; however, her plans unexpectedly change when Harper reveals that, for fear of being rejected, she has not told her family about her sexuality yet and much less their relationship. Abby reluctantly agrees to play the straight, orphaned best friend for Harper’s family. After all, it is only for five days, so it shouldn’t be too difficult, right?

Not entirely. Upon arriving at the Caldwell’s family home Abby is met by Harper’s overbearing, perfectionist mother Tipper (Steenburgen), her politician father Ted (Garber) and her over-affectionate, dutiful sister Jane (Holland). The house is all decked out for the festivities and what ensues is Abby being thrown head first into the family’s annual holiday affairs. She continuously uncovers previously unknown facets of Harper, such as her competitiveness with her older sister Sloane (Alison Brie), and she conveniently meets not only Harper’s ex-boyfriend Connor (Jake McDorman), but also her ex-girlfriend Riley (Plaza) at family dinner one night. Although Abby tries to enjoy the fleeting romantic moments with Harper behind closed doors, their relationship slowly starts to take a toll. While Harper tries to live up to her parents’ expectations, we experience Abby increasingly feeling lost in the midst of what is supposed to be the most joyful time of the year.

Happiest Season most certainly contains all the ingredients that make up a Christmas movie: a large ensemble, marriage plans, misunderstandings and mishaps in the house of the future in-laws and in the end certainly a lot of love, forgiveness and understanding – only this time with a lesbian couple constituting the main focus. Having an openly queer director as well as various actors, the movie not only features a LGBT+ storyline, but is told from the perspective of queer people adding authenticity to the characters and their struggles. The movie truthfully depicts the experience of growing up in a conservative environment, the possible internalized homophobia that can be rooted within oneself and having parents with unreasonably high expectations. Arguing that her behavior stems from a much deeper, ongoing internalized struggle of her yearning for her parents’ approval since she is a child and a fear of being rejected by her family does explain why she is so scared of coming out. While Harper’s coming out journey certainly is valid, it is also very messy. Understanding, hereby fell a bit short when it came to the way in which Harper treated Abby, forcing her to go back into the closet after lying to her about being out to her family, then leaving her to her own devices in an unknown town and eventually blaming her for feeling suffocated. The movie could have definitely done with more happy scenes between Abby and Harper, emphasizing the depth of their emotional and romantic connection, which might have made it easier to accept the rather quick resolution of the peak drama and ultimately storyline.

While the drama surrounding Abby and Harper’s relationship definitely keeps the viewer invested in the storyline, it sometimes overshadows the light-hearted feeling that a romantic comedy is supposed to have. Thankfully, we had Dan Levy’s character of John, Abby’s gay best friend, who delivers much needed comedic relief in the midst of the relationship chaos and was a very likable character, attributable to Levy’s great performance. While always providing a good laugh, John also can be seen as one the voice of reason, providing Abby with advice and reminding her of how everybody’s coming out story is valid and different and that Harper not being ready to come out does not mean that she doesn’t love Abby.

Two other rather unexpected favorites of the movie turn out to be Harper’s sister Jane and Riley, the ex-girlfriend. Jane is seemingly the outcast in her own family, always trying to please everybody while being extremely underappreciated. She is easily the most likeable character from the Caldwell family and her storyline wrap up was the one that was well-deserved. Riley, on the other hand, turns out to be the one person besides John that Abby can talk to about her feelings, especially in regards to Harper’s family as she knows them since high school, probably even longer. The two of them run into each other in town a couple of times and it was easy to get lost in the bond that these two built, hoping for something more than friendship to develop. After having seen the ending, that hope has subsided, although a what-if scenario remains at the back burner.

Happiest Season certainly appeals to a large community of viewers and has received mostly positive reviews. That being said, the movie did not have any real competition in the industry, being the first of its kind. Despite some shortcomings and there being room for critique and improvement, Clea DuVall definitely directed and co-wrote a groundbreaking piece of work that will hopefully pave the way for more LGBTQ+ representation within mainstream (Christmas) movies.