My Norwegian Holiday

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.

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.)

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.)

We all know the formula; won't repeat it here. This movie does not follow that formula. No old boyfriends/girlfriends, no misinterpreted intentions causing someone to walk out about 20 minutes from the end (only to come back and live happily ever after). No, there is a different story here that contains a mystery and a gradual sense by the characters of discovering where they belong and with whom they should be. It's a great story, good acting by new faces, and wonderful scenery in Norway (a great place for filming a Christmas story!). The only problem was that I wanted to the story to continue (maybe a sequel?). Good work by Hallmark on this one!

I love how half the population of Norway has submitted low reviews about this movie. I would also be annoyed if I was Norwegian, but my review is going to rate the actual movie since I have no idea how authentic the Norwegian content is.

I liked the production value. The settings were nice, the feel was right, and it was unique enough to merit watching. I also really liked Rhiannon Fish's character. She had quirks to make her relatable but not so many quirks as to be annoying. I was neutral on her before this movie, but she is the best part of this one and now I'm a fan.

If I had to crticize the movie, I would say the setup for the plot was ridiculous. Rhiannon's character was WAY too trusting after this random dude tracked her down at her workplace (in a school, no less) and showed up to see her. That's when you call for help, not decide to travel with him to Norway. Then when she mentioned she should Google him, he begged her not to. Not alarming at all!