tek's rating: ¾

Happiest Season (PG-13), on Hulu
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This came out in November 2020. I guess it was originally intended as a theatrical release, but instead was released as a Hulu original movie, because of Covid-19.

The movie starts with Harper (Mackenzie Davis), who loves Christmas, and her girlfriend, Abby (Kristen Stewart), who seems ambivalent about the holiday, taking a Christmas-themed tour. Before long, Harper asks Abby to go with her to meet her family when she goes home for the holiday. It isn't until they're nearly there that Harper admits to Abby that she hasn't come out to her family, so she wants Abby to pretend to just be her roommate. Part of the problem is that Harper's father, Ted (Victor Garber) is running for mayor, and Harper is worried that her orientation might negatively affect his campaign. Still, she promises to tell her family the truth after the holidays, and Abby reluctantly agrees to go along with the charade.

Harper's family also includes her perfectionist mother, Tipper (Mary Steenburgen), her older sister Sloane (Alison Brie), her younger sister, Jane, Sloane's husband, Eric, and their twin children. Another important character is Abby's best friend, John (Dan Levy), who is against her going along with the lie (among other things). And there's Harper's ex-girlfriend from high school, Riley (Aubrey Plaza), who becomes friends with Abby, and commiserates over Harper's reluctance to tell the truth, because of a similar experience she once had with Harper. Anyway, there are lots of comical and dramatic situations throughout the movie, which I don't want to go into detail about. But it's all very complicated, and I ended up being unsure whether Harper and Abby should even be together. (I won't reveal whether or not they're still a couple by the end of the movie.) But I will say the ending is quite happy, and the whole movie was reasonably entertaining.


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