This holiday season, just like decorating and lighting up the tree, watching a Christmas movie can light up the brain.
According to psychologists, it’s been proven that Christmas movies can make people feel hopeful and warm, even though they may have had a rough year.
In saying that, here are three short reviews of classic Christmas movies to watch in December. So, let them light up your screen and the rest of your 2023!
Love Actually:
Love Actually is one of the jewels in the cinematic crown. Imbued with drama, romance, and comedy, this Christmas film has it all – and then some. Mainly set in London, it’s a tapestry of interwoven stories told by many characters… but love is the one common thread pulling them all together.
The film shows different facets of love, romanticism, and loss.
It depicts grieving characters whose souls feel reborn once they get a crush on someone and lovelorn, romantic people who’ve stored love away in their heart’s vault, only to be crushed when they realise that the person they’ve obsessed over doesn’t fit the perfect mould their imagination has so carefully set them in.
But that’s why the movie is so unique and worth watching on Christmas or New Year’s: the scenes depicting tragic, unrequited love are just as beautiful and magical as those displaying reciprocated feelings between people.
When Mark, who is hopelessly in love with his best friend’s wife, holds up a sign for Keira Knightley’s character, reading “You are beautiful”, this represents the film’s message.
It also tells the audience that all can be beautiful – even heartbreak and sadness – at Christmas time.
Bridget Jones’s Diary:
This film tells the story of thirty-two-year-old Bridget Jones, a woman living in London who is both confident and unsure, contemplating her singledom during the year.
She devises a New Year’s resolution to break bad habits that have hindered her: she’ll keep a diary to invoke structure and somewhat ‘normalcy’ into her life regarding romantic relationships.
Soon, though, she finds her soul entangled with not one but two men: the villainous Daniel Cleaver and the heroic Mark Darcy. Her diary becomes her conscience as she uses her thoughts and voice to detail their good and poor traits.
As she speaks aloud, the diary reveals the woman she is deep down, the woman she wants to be; It’s like a leather-bound, inked anchor, steering her through the year over storms of disappointment, heartbreak, and socially awkward waves.
Bridget, portrayed by a perfectly cast Renee Zellweger, is also a great companion for audiences on New Year’s Eve as well as Christmas: Jones reminds viewers that chaotic, flawed souls also get their happily-ever-after and that, sometimes, mistakenly making blue soup can be a good omen for the start of the New Year.
Last Christmas:
Last Christmas tells the tale of 26-year-old Londoner Katarina (Kate), whose deep love of George Michael accompanies her through the ups and downs of messy adulthood as she slowly starts to realise what her heart wants – before it’s too late.
Emilia Clarke plays the fun yet emotionally damaged Kate, who is the clear wildcard in her family; that is, until Kate becomes crazy (in love).
She meets Tom, who seems too good to be true: he volunteers at a homeless shelter and encourages her to look after her heart and follow her dreams in life.
Without spoiling too much, viewers only need to know that Last Christmas is a movie worthy of being a classic Christmas film for the festive holidays.
In George Michaels’ words, the audience has “Gotta have faith.”
Nataša Aster-Stater is an editor for W’SUP News, and became Director of Student Publications in July 2024. She is studying for a Bachelor of Communication at Western Sydney University, with an aspiration to be a journalist. She is also a member of several social clubs on campus, such as the WSU Book Club, where she enjoys reading and discussing novels and authors with other students.
She enjoys writing articles, interviewing people, and telling their stories. She was appointed a WestWords Academian for 2024.
She was the winner of the adult category for Blacktown in the Living Stories Western Sydney Writing Prize 2024.
