Happiest Season: Aubrey Plaza Says Abby Should’ve Ended Up With Riley
All of the Happiest Season fans who wanted to see Abby end up with Riley can take comfort in knowing they are not alone - Aubrey Plaza feels the same way. Since its release on Hulu the day before Thanksgiving, Clea DuVall's Happiest Season has been embraced as an instant classic that adds a fresh spin on the typical conventions of the rom-com genre. When the film opens, Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis) are blissfully happy together, with Abby making plans to propose to her girlfriend on Christmas day. But their relationship takes a turn for the worse when they visit Harper's family for the holidays and Abby learns they still think Harper is straight. While trying to maintain the lie, Abby is relegated to the basement and forced to act like she is Harper's platonic roommate. Happiest Season is further embedded with humor and drama by a long list of supporting actors including Alison Brie, Mary Steenburgen, Jake McDorman, Victor Garber, Mary Holland, and Dan Levy.
Additionally, the movie stars Plaza, whose character adds a complicated layer to Abby and Harper's relationship. As Abby copes with being kept a secret, she bonds with Riley (Plaza), who secretly dated Harper in high school. After someone found their love letters, Harper denied their relationship and outed Riley, explaining the letters away by saying that Riley was obsessed with her. Due to the women's shared experience with Harper and their detectable chemistry, fans have been quick to say that Happiest Season should have ended with Abby and Riley together as a couple.
Turns out, Plaza is among those who believe that Abby deserves to be with Riley rather than Harper. In a conversation with Levy for FabTV, Plaza jokes in her usual monotone that fans should "riot in the streets" because Abby ends up with Harper when she should have left her for Riley. She said this before the movie was released, meaning she hoped for a different ending long before fans started reacting to the movie. You can read Plaza's take below:
"I hope that people walk away from the movie and they're disappointed that Kristen Stewart didn't end up with my character and they like riot in the streets about it. Cause, for me it's a competition, acting is a competition, and I just want to win and so I want people to walk away and go 'man she should've been with Riley.'"
Although Plaza appears to be joking, the validity of her point still stands; people did walk away from the movie thinking Abby should've been with Riley. In the emotional climax of the movie, Abby says that she wants to be with someone who is ready to be herself and Riley is clearly at that point. Furthermore, Riley and Abby have compatible dry humor and similar interests. The fact that Harper spends the movie indulging in her preppy, ambitious side while denying her relationship with Abby only fuels people's arguments that Riley was the superior love interest.
Regardless of what Plaza and other fans may want, Happiest Season follows the typical formula of a holiday rom-com, which dictates that the central couple end up together. Any other love interest who appears in these types of movies are only there as a catalyst for the main relationship. But these stories in cinema have historically been reserved for straight couples, making Happiest Season a revolutionary film. Not only does it shine a spotlight on lesbian couples, it highlights the fact that, like heterosexual storylines, gay relationships have nuance and complex layers. So while some finished Happiest Season disappointed with its ending, there's something to be said about a movie successfully demonstrating that queer relationships go deeper than the one-dimensional form in which they have historically appeared in cinema.
Source: FabTV