Last Christmas will leave you with a fuzzy feeling, even if it's not your average romcom

FILM REVIEW: LAST CHRISTMAS (12a), LIGHT CINEMA WISBECH, OUT NOW.

STARRING: EMILIA CLARKE, EMMA THOMPSON AND HENRY GOLDING

RUNNING TIME: 1HR 43MINS. DIRECTOR: PAUL FEIG

Looking for a little light relief from all the chaotic political nonsense currently circulating then pop along to The Light Cinema and watch Last Christmas (12A).

Co-written by the incredibly talented Emma Thompson the film is this year's must-see Christmas romcom, although to be fair it is perhaps not your average take on this genre.

Starring the Mother of Dragons herself, Emilia Clarke, off of Game of Thrones, as the main character, Kate, a wannabe musical star who has recently been seriously ill, the film twists and turns its way to a happy finale.

Kate's mystery illness - it is well over half way through before you find out what has happened - has left her depressed and on a course of self-destruction.

Drinking too much, sleeping around and perpetually sofa-surfing at various friends' homes, until each of them gets fed up and kicks her out, Kate, is still likeable.

Working in an all-year-round Christmas store where the uniform is an elf costume and her boss, Santa (Michelle Yeoh) is constantly on the edge of sacking her, things start to look up for Kate when she meets Tom (Henry Golding).

Meanwhile her family has practically given up on her with her sister on her case to contact their mum (Emma Thompson), a Croatian who fled with the family to England during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.Thompson,as you would expect is flawless in the role of the slightly despot mother, who is terrified Brexit will see her sent back to Croatia.

But it is Clarke, whose endearing smile, steals the show. You are rooting for her and Tom to fall in love and live happily ever after. But he turns out to be quite elusive, and just why that is becomes clear in a monumental plot-twist, which if you had thought about it and put two and two together you might have seen coming.

Under Tom's guidance, Kate slowly pulls her life back together, she reconnects with her family, she starts volunteering at a homeless shelter and she patches things up with her boss, even playing match-maker for her.

This may not be your average romcom, it's not as polished as Love Actually or as funny as Four Weddings and a Funeral, but it does still leave you with a bit of a fuzzy feeling, and there's no doubt it will become a Christmas favourite.

You will also be amazed to discover that Clarke can sing, and produces a great rendition of the titular Last Christmas as the film reaches it's inevitably upbeat ending.

7.5/10

By Sarah Cliss