Tempête de Noël

A Santa Claus, a priest, and a concert pianist walk into a bar... Sorry, couldn't resist. There IS a bar. And a guy working as a Santa Claus. And an actual priest. And a very indignant concert pianist, whose career is in free fall. There's also a pop star with her assistant and a body guard. A constantly fighting couple with a pre-teen daughter. A young woman meeting her lover. A very nasty female attorney. A girl sitting at the bar, working on a list of things her Dad might want for Christmas. Yeah, it's almost Christmas and all these people and many more are stuck in the Oslo airport due to bad weather.

Yes, it's a very overused setup. But we were browsing through Netflix on Christmas eve and literally all other Christmas movies looked downright ridiculous. At least being stuck at an airport because of bad weather is perfectly realistic. Airports do bring together people from all walks of life. And bad weather is a great equalizer - no amount of money will get you to your destination.

Over 6 30 minute episodes we get to know each of the many characters a bit and some of them get to know each other. Acting is excellent across the board. Everyone is a living breathing human being. This being a European series, there is a lot of sadness, but also a good amount of light. A skinny black Santa Claus manages to grant at least one child her Christmas wish, sort of. And one sugary miracle is forgiven.

At first I was really confused because there are a lot of very different characters, but after a couple of episodes you get a pretty good grasp of who they are. All the actors are doing a good job portraying their character, and makes the story decently believable.

It was a wonderful idea to have different nationalities a part of this show, I feel most of the time it works what seems effortlessly.

The soundtrack and mood is great in every episode, and you feel you get closer and closer to a happy ending for all.

There are some very weird dialogues here and there, and things I can't imagine anyone would say... One character swaps very cringey between languages for apparently no reason, and others just have truly odd lines. I also feel there is a character who got totally forgotten about which left me wondering why we didn't get to see their happy ending... But all in all, decent christmas show and worth a watch.

This is a lovely, slow-paced, and character-driven series. No major events are happening; the focus is on relations between people and their conversations. I believe it's crucial that you like these types of series to enjoy A Storm for Christmas. The people who give this series bad reviews was expecting something different.

Just because you loved Home for Christmas (same director, some of the same actors), doesn't mean this series is a perfect fit for you. It's not really a similar at all, as Home for Christmas has a lot more humor, romance and more "action", while A Storm for Christmas is best described as mellow, cozy and moving.

The series is heartwarming and made me feel sad when it was over cause I started caring so much about several characters!

It's a breath of fresh air compared to many new-ish Christmas movies and series with so many clichés. Not to say there are no clichés in this one; there are, but in a different way.

There are many great actors here from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Recommend not watching the series dubbed cause you'll miss the fact that they speak different languages and therefore sometimes misunderstand each other.

I saw another review here stating how strange it is that one character switches between languages. This is likely the security guard who's not a native Norwegian speaker (the actress is American) and therefore changes to English sometimes. I do, however, agree it's strange that it is never really mentioned why she does that for international viewers.

And yes, there is a lot of profanity! Scandinavians aren't very religious people.

Of the thousands of Christmas movies I've seen since my first... Concrete-dam... I've never had this much difficulty writing a review. There are so many amazing elements. Instead of a proper critique, I'm just going to list why my parents and I absolutely LOVED it: an eclectic, hugely relatable, cast of characters, the myriad of emotions they and we expressed/felt throughout, chances are -at least- one character represents YOU, A story -and lines- written so well I'm 110% sure as least one member of the production crew has personal experience, way more true-to-life than any Hallmark movie, and to top it all off... "I CAN'T believe we MISSED that!" Want to know what "that" is? You know what to do.

I haven't watched a single Norwegian (actually Scandinavian) movie badly played, and this is a recommendation already. The intertwined stories reminds of Love Actually, despite it's not so funny, not so dense, and touches tougher problems. I enjoyed the sincerity and the themes approached, the script, basically everything. Even if some reviewers will complain about stereotype of some stories, each and every one of them has new angles, and in general candid ones. There is nothing really ugly in any of them, and this is what makes it a good/great Christmas story (or stories). Obviously I recommend it.