Home for Christmas

Caught the last screening of this lovely little gem at TIFF yesterday afternoon. Most of the stories are a brilliant blend of heartbreaking darkness and excruciatingly beauty, with one notable exception. The manner in which Bent Hamer crafts the tales is - in a word - astonishing. He has inspired me to search out the collection of short stories that forms the basis of the script.

The cast is note perfect, and the film is lit so beautifully that several of the characters look positively succulent. And yes, that sounds odd, but after you see the film you'll understand.

The ending, which I will not spoil, literally made many of us in the audience gasp. And please stuff a few fresh tissues in your pocket, although it should be noted that I'm a bit of a soft touch.

A wonderful film indeed, Mr. Hamer.

I love Norwegian director Bent Hamer and this film is hands-down one of the best Christmas movies I've ever seen. For me, it's up there with the original "Bishops Wife" and "It's a Wonderful Life", a modern classic for those of us who prefer wistfulness to treacle. It's funny in that wry, Scandinavian way. It also has all of the elements of a traditional Christmas story. There's plenty of romance, both blossoming and fading. There's a bright star and a baby born under less than ideal circumstances. It's a supremely wintery story that features snowplows even bigger than ones we have here in my part of Canada. Its final selling point is Maria Mena's beautiful song "Home for Christmas", which plays over the closing credits. The only downside is that this film is super hard to find, but aren't most things worth having?

I loved this movie!

I saw it at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and I was enjoying myself so much I was surprised when it ended in the way time flies when you're having fun. The movie is often very funny, despite the fact that there are lots of serious and painful stuff going on.

It's a Norwegian film based upon a series of short stories. I'm no expert on film-making, but this director must really know his business, because I was completely unaware that I was watching separate stories. It felt very much like one single story even though it was jumping between different ones.

The movie has a very strong belief in the basic decency of people. This doesn't mean that there aren't people doing some bad things. There is no great evil going on here, but these are real people making mistakes and acting badly and hurting each other. But decency predominates. At the same time, there isn't any "sappy-phoney-sentimentality" present. All too often in Hollywood films when people are doing good things it feels rather contrived and is just in there to make the film commercial. In this movie, you do believe that the people in the film would actually do these good things. It's a Christmas movie, but it's 100% believable.

The movie is also educational. You'll learn why you don't buy your wife and your mistress the same Christmas present!

I love this film and consider it a modern Christmas classic. It has many of the elements of a traditional Christmas story – a couple welcoming a newborn in the what amounts to a stable, meaningful signs in the sky, touching and sad family scenes – as well as Bent Hamer's unmistakable wry, Norwegian sense of humour. Certain scenes made me laugh out loud while my husband thought my reaction was odd. I guess you either get his jokes or you don't. Personally, I find all of Hamer's films funny in a droll way. While the opening scene is particularly bleak, don't be deterred. The story quickly changes time and place.

The film gives you a Christmas Eve peek into the lives and relationships of several individuals and couples, young and old, in a small Norwegian town. You see how modernity and tradition live side by side in a peaceful and practical way, reflective of Norway's down to earth cultural maturity.

I thought all of the actors were quite good and well-cast in their roles. There are as many sad endings as happy ones for the characters in this film, so it's a far more realistic interpretation of a Christmas story than "It's a Wonderful Life".

I enjoy Scandinavian films in general and Bent Hamer's films in particular. If you liked "O'Horton" and "Kitchen Stories" this is probably your kind of Christmas film. It was difficult to find a copy of "Hjem til jul", I had to buy a copy of it on Ebay from someone in the Philippines. I'm sure it had decent distribution in Europe, but good luck finding it in North America. No one's seeding it on Torrentz. Still, if you're a Hamer fan, it's well worth the hunt. Now, if only I could find "Eggs"

Dull. Had the potential to be edgy or heart-warming, or even both, but ultimately was neither. Drifts throughout and goes nowhere in the end.