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henrispenris
Reviews
Midtsommernatt (2024)
The house is the real star
Really wanted to love this show, but it's kinda... meeeh... Seen it before I guess.
Lots of half-told stories and different personalities creating some friction, but everyone's great friends in the end. Classic family drama with some old resentment and issues surfacing. Casting has a range from really awkward and cringe (happy couple), through cute (upcoming couple) to decently believable (soon-to-be ex-couple)..
But the real star of the show is of course the house, well-known from the show Exit, and also as a destination for a sunday outing along Bunnefjorden (there's a cafeteria next door in the summer, spectacular place).
Så var det jul igjen (2023)
Just no!
I read some raving reviews of this movie, was really looking forward to it. But it is really really bad!! The whole thing can be summed up by the word cringe. It seems almost all the characters are obnoxious twats trying their worst, with the exception of the pregnant sister-in-law and some kids. Jashan, being an "outsider" at christmas is not even trying to acknowledge the fact that he is in unknown territory. And his fiance Thea has done exactly nothing to prepare him or her family for the experience, she doesn't have his back in the situation at all. Her mother is over-the top traditional and not ready for an indian family member. And all of this could have been ok as a christmas movie if it had been done in a way that was sweet and charming and funny, and not as deep into a two-way cultural racism kind of thing. The whole movie was just insanely annoying and provocative. And there was one detail I think said a lot: At christmas eve, the whole family wears bunad (very traditional Norwegian festive garments). Jashan is wearing a corresponding type of traditional garment from India. But at the end of the movie, when showing next christmas, the whole family still in bunad, but Jashan is wearing a dark suit instead. So the morale of the film is for him to become less indian and more "modern western man". What were the producers thinking?
Snekker Andersen og Julenissen (2016)
A new favorite that honors the original
This movie is a modern take of a christmas classic that has been shown on Norwegian tv since 1973. The original is a very sweet little old-style cartoon story, just 15 minutes of pure christmas spirit. Being almost as old as the original, I've watched it countless times, and love it dearly, to the point of not wanting to see this modern movie version. But finally I gave in and watched this film. And I must say, I am so pleasantly surprised, the movie is lovely!! It honors the original 100%, all the quotes from the original is there, Santa's family get all their wishes from Snekker Andersen, but the story is expanded to give more context. The new bits of the story include a stressed-out housewife that's sick of her husbands christmas antics, two older siblings trying to prove that santa isn't real, and a backstory of how the christmas wish/present distribution actually works. And santa in this story is not the American Santa Claus, but a Norwegian Julenisse living in the forest. The most moving new part is the part where Snekker Andersen gets a revisit/explanation for a particular christmas eve in his childhood. That part includes the only change to a detail I could identify: Grandpa Claus gets a walking cane in the original story, but in this one it is changed in a way that helps tell a story.
The movie is set in the sixties, with wonderful detail in interior style etc. The only part i really didn't care for in that regard was the lighted decorations they placed on the roof of the house, that was very much NOT a thing back then, and it ruined the atmosphere from the outdoor sceenes a bit.
Finally: Anders Baasmo Christensen is perfect as Santa. Took me a while to realise it was him, it is very well done. And the Hedmark dialect is done beautifully, only minor changes in wording at times, probably to make it more understandable to modern-day kids.
I don't know if this movie is the instant classic with those who aren't familiar with the original. But for me, it was an instant favorite that will go onto the "must-watch" list for christmas, together with the originals of Popelko and Reisen til Julestjernen.