Le Secret de l'étoile du Nord

I watched this years ago and forgot the title. However it was one that stuck with me and although obscure, I found it again. If fairy tales awaken your inner child or a since of magic then this is a good bet. You will not find the high Hollywood budget, but a sweet story that is different the the run of the mill, saccharine you will get from Hallmark.

As another reviewer said, (for the American, anyway) this Norwegian movie is more a fairy tale set at Christmas-time than 'a Christmas movie' per se, and that's part of what's so good and refreshing about it for me. A little girl is separated from her family, does not know who she is, but after several years is driven by a feeling that she's not supposed to be where she is now. I think the dubbing was just fine, I don't get distracted by that usually anyway. I'm so glad I found this while searching Netflix, and hope others will watch and enjoy it. It's beautiful visually, and very relaxing... no violence or frightening physical predicaments.

I really, really enjoyed this movie. As another reviewer said, it does not hit you over the head with Christmas themes. There are no flying reindeer or Christmas gifts and there is no Baby Jesus. But it does touch on wonderful Christmas traditions, such as the mistletoe and the lighting of the Christmas tree, as well as giving some insight about what Father Christmas knows and how he knows it. If I had any complaint at all it was that the story moved a little too quickly--it would have been way too easy for me to watch another 20 minutes or so, so that some areas could have been expanded upon. The villains were a bit one-dimensional, but as they were not crucial to the plot, I forgave that. All in all, a very enjoyable movie and one that I would be happy to add to my DVD collection if at all possible.

The version I saw was dubbed, badly. When it's a foreign made movie I want the original language with subtitles, otherwise I'm not interested.

I won't say that this film necessarily deserves the 10 star rating that I gave it. I also don't think it deserves some of the one star ratings it was given because of poor dubbing. On to my actual review: This film is beautiful. The story is great and, ignoring the dubbing, the acting looked like it was fantastic. I would definitely like to see this with a better dub job or at least have the ability to watch it in Norwegian with subtitles. I watched this with my 4 year old daughter and she thoroughly enjoyed it.