The movie starts off all joyful and festive, sticking to what was marketed and promised in the trailer, however that all comes to an abrupt end way too soon. This movie left me feeling more annoyed than it did make me feel happy about a journey meant to be about self acceptance and family. Firstly, I'm shocked to see so many people overlooking and justifying Harper's manipulative and ignorant actions towards Abby. There is a fine line between being afraid to be out and mistreating your partner because of it. She doesn't need to be painted as a villain but she should've had better character development rather than shoving it all in the last 10 minutes of the film and call it a happy resolution. Second, what is up with movies/tv shows casually placing "outings" as the major turning point plus for shock value? Then proceeding to brush it off with a half assed apology from who was responsible, downplaying the seriousness of how wrong it is in the first place. Cliches like that are literally meant for straight audiences. The fact that so many saw Abby and Riley being a potential couple further accentuated the lack of chemistry between Abby and Harper in the long run of the film. The jealousy antics and the overly fake forced heteronormativity that was done to an extent that tormented Abby, only made Harpers character even more dislikable. Yes, this fight/situation alone didn't have to mean they should've parted ways, but given the poor writing choice for putting Abby in the limelight, mostly seeing her perspective makes viewers much more sympathetic for her, making it harder to be so quickly forgiving for everything she had to go through like 3.5/4 of the film. "Everyone's coming out story is different" perhaps the most important line in the whole movie. This movie had its wholesome moments and I see why people enjoyed it but overall for me it just left a sour aftertaste, made me uncomfortable at times for how stressful and triggering it was, but like it or hate it, the film was poorly executed for the themes they wanted to explore and surely shouldn't be regarded as a "romcom".
Review of Happiest Season
