My Norwegian Holiday

I read about this movie in a Norwegian newspaper while they were filming in Bergen, and got my hopes up because I thought they would do Norway right. They did not! The Christmas traditions is accurate, but why would they not use a single Norwegian actor when they were filming here? Everyone who was supposed to be Norwegian sounded German, their pronunciations were so bad it was very cringe to watch. The houses looked nothing like Norwegian houses, on the outside or inside. And finally it was less Christmasy than I would have thought and hoped, seeing as we usually have lots and lots of snow during Christmas. Should have been filmed during Christmas for real, and released next year instead. But as a Hallmark movie, the plot was good, and not as cliche as normal.

Have you heard about the Norwegian farmer who loved his wife so much, he almost told her?

I am loving Hallmark doing some more immersive storylines within other cultures. This film adds a clever meeting and trip into the storyline which was very enjoyable. As a fellow Dutchwoman, I loved seeing both David Elsendoorn and Peter Vollebregt playing the father and son Henrik and Johan Strom. I thought they and the rest of the cast did a remarkably believable job with the Norwegian accents and pronunciations.

I loved seeing the very real city of Bergen, seeing and hearing about Norwegian Christmas customs like St. Lucia celebrations, the food, the knitting, the singing around the tree...and traditional costume. I also appreciated the conversation about the American use of the word love and the sharing of the two duvets...which I already knew about and agree with whole heartedly.

I liked the tie in to a personal journey and not making the story too complex. I thought Rhiannon Fish was great as JJ and she had wonderful chemistry with David Elsendoorn. The sibling interaction and teasing was just the right note between Henrik and Nora. It was really fun to see a wedding as well as Christmas since there are lots of traditions around weddings around the world...including the dresses.

I really loved this one, it had humor, cultural sharing and family. I recommend this to anyone who wants a heartfelt holiday film this season. This is definitely competing for the best Hallmark Holiday film of 2023...I think it just might edge out the Heidelberg Holiday, which is also very good. Cheers, Hallmark. I really thought you were done for, but movies like these are breathing new life into your network. Well done.

I am Norwegian and I read about this movie in a newspaper referencing the legendary X-Files episode with Norwegian talking. It delivered as expected and I enjoyed this movie quite a lot. The cringy German sounding Norwegians and the deadpan delivery of Norwegian clichés.

At the same time, the research into Norwegian culture was pretty good and I liked the filming on location in Bergen.

The overall story even worked quite well.

While this may be a run of the mill Hallmark movie for everyone else it could easily become a cult movie in Norway.

(The angry reviews from other Norwegians must be seen in the light of them taking the movie seriously in the first place.)

As a Norwegian I'm feeling a little offended. Norwegians would not have acted this way towards Henrik. So many things about Norwegian traditions are wrong, and they couldn't even get Norwegian actors, even though they filmed in Norway. If they hadn't gotten so much wrong about Norwegian culture and had used some Norwegian actors I really do think I would have liked the film. But the mistakes are just too glearing to me, it took all my focus. (Also; geography always bothers me when American films take on Europe. Why would they walk around Bergen with alpine skis when the nearest slope is a couple of hours away.)

Set in Norway, but not with a Norwegian cast. This is the first Rhiannon Fish film I've seen where she's not annoying, the Australian actress does a fairly good job. Her co-lead is the Dutch actor David Elsendoorn who played Jan Maas in the series "Ted Lasso", he's always good.

This is again another movie that thankfully doesn't have a female lead who owns her own business usually interior design, dressmaker or other similar occupation or she's up for a lifechanging job promotion or she developed a dating or other stupid app. The script wasn't bad, but not the best Hallmark movie I've seen. The location was nice, in Bergen, Norway.