WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Happiest Season, streaming now on Hulu.
Clea DuVall's Happiest Season is a queer, Christmas rom-com that follows Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis), an established lesbian couple who decide to spend the holiday with Harper's family. There's just one catch: She hasn't come out to her family yet, and she told them Abby is her orphaned roommate with nowhere else to go.
Things get complicated fast, but one thing is for certain: Harper's sister Jane (Mary Holland, who also co-wrote the film) is the best character in the entire movie. She provides much-needed levity and flies in the face of what her parents want for her well before either of her overly-competitive sisters, which leads to some serious character growth for everyone by the end of the film.
Holland said in an interview with Nylon, "Jane is a totally different energy than her family. She gets pushed aside by her family a lot and normally it rolls off her back. It doesn't stick and she doesn't take it personally. She's just so excited to be with her family. But then at a certain point it does start to have a cumulative effect. And we really wanted Jane to explode at a certain point. Because you see her the whole movie just getting ignored and pushed aside and not taken seriously and not given the same level of attention as her sisters."
This is what makes her so appealing as a character. Jane is an aspiring fantasy author who's been working on the world-building for her first book for almost a decade. She's a talented artist and she's eager to help in whatever way she can; she also wants people around her to be relaxed and having a good time. In her family, that's a rarity -- Jane, Harper and Sloane's (Alison Brie) parents are WASPy and obsessed with their family image, which Jane doesn't match at all.
Throughout Happiest Season, there's a running gag about how Jane is the useless sister, because she didn't go to law school or become a reporter like Sloane or Harper. There are also multiple, throwaway lines that could be read as child abuse For example, Jane feared being locked in her basement bedroom when she was a kid, so there's no lock on the door anymore. Her mom also cites an incident where Jane "wouldn't stop biting" when she was in preschool.
Although it's never labeled as such and these lines are clearly played for laughs, the overall suggestion is that these parents have pushed their daughters to the breaking point, over and over again, which suggests -- at the very least -- emotional manipulation. Jane, in particular, is repeatedly cast aside as the "weird" one with off-the-beaten-path interests and a tendency to throw herself wholeheartedly into everything, including introductions with new people.
By the end of the movie, Jane gets her chance to air her grievances. She's never been as violently competitive as either Harper or Sloane, but she's arguably gone out of her way more times for her family than anyone else -- and never received even an ounce of thanks. Her tipping point comes when a painting she spent 100 hours on is carelessly destroyed by Harper. Jane tearfully declares that her art matters -- that she matters -- then throws herself into the fight with abandon. This is clearly out of character for her, but it's an important moment of growth for everyone. Jane isn't a doormat, and she never has been; she's just never responded to other people's cruelty with cruelty of her own.
Happiest Season is a rom-com with a happy ending, which is par for the course. After all of the drama, Jane signs with John (Dan Levy), a literary agent, who not only understands the complexity of her fantasy world, but is genuinely excited about it. The pair are clearly a dream team, and the film ends with Jane doing a reading and book signing for what appears to be a packed house. Honestly, she deserves that and more -- and it's about time her brilliance is recognized.
Directed by Clea DuVall, Happiest Season is available now on Hulu. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza and Dan Levy.