O Natal de Costume

I watched the movie with very high hopes but ended up being highly disappointed. It is a lost opportunity and I feel it would probably offend people from both the countries. I am Indian and no, we don't behave like Jashan. His character was downright rude and obnoxious. I felt the Secondhand embarassment throughout. Thea's family was equally hostile towards Jashan. Eventually it was a mess where no-one could evoke any sympathy! I think the only likeable characters were the child and her mother. The last 5 minutes of the movie were good. Rest of the movie is completely directionless in my opinion.

It's a Christmas movie. Just like hundreds of them. You expect to have a good time, drop some laughs from the awkwardness and that's all. We cannot always expect "Love Actually".

And for the people who thinks that's awful and makes sense and the characters are not believable... come one, it says right at the beginning that is a true story!

Most of the characters have ridiculous situations and apart from artistic freedom, thinking that some of them happened to the real "Shazam" and Thea... well, I can relate. Mothers in law and unfitting can be like that.

So, it's not Love Actually as said before but also it is not mass production Christmas's Walmart movies.

He certainly annoyed me, she perhaps wasn't perfect either but you don't cook in someone's home without asking, and speaking loudly outside a church when people are inside !

I did see it through to the end but it wouldn't have mattered if I hadn't.

Everyone's culture is different and I don't feel he embraced hers either. He comes across arrogant expecting people to like him although he's pushy.

I wish there had been an update at the end to tell us what happened in real life as this is based on fact ! Did they marry and live happily ever after and are they still married?

I won't be telling my friends its a film they must see !

Jashan is over the top obnoxious as is most of this cast. Everyone is so flat, or uninteresting, or just mean. Jashan is like a bull in a china shop, he is wholly self unaware, doesn't bring much to the table. Nothing likable about his overbearing character. I was rooting for the girl to dump him. The Norwegian family is wholly inflexible and just not likable at all from the start. There is no chemistry between the two main characters. This may be technically a Christmas movie, but there is no warmth or real affection, especially at the end of the movie where they try to wrap it into a nice little funny love fest package, but it fails miserably. They could have called this Skunk, because-yes it's a stinker. Could have been better, writing was awful.

Funny view on culture crash between Norway and the outside world.

Remember that there are only 5 million Norwegians, and Jul and May 17 are days where we are focused on our traditions. Our ways are a bit strange.

Jashan is representing the outside world. Nothing to do with his nationality specifically.

As a Norwegian I felt this made me think of how hung up we are on our traditions.

25% of our population migrated to USA in the late 1800s. For those left it was a crisis and the national romanticism started in Norway. Bunad, Jul tradition and more were important when rebuilding our nation's self esteem.