Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Couple experiences holiday culture clash; language, racism.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Christmas as Usual
What's the Story?
In CHRISTMAS AS USUAL, Norwegian Thea (Ida Ursin-Holm) lives with Indian Jashan (Kanan Gill). When he asks her to marry him, she plans a trip home to Norway with Jashan to meet her family and integrate him into their elaborate Christmas traditions. Afraid of the family's reaction to a man of color, Thea fails to tell mom Anne-Lise (Marit Adelaide Andreasse) that Jashan is Indian and that they are engaged. He's greeted with such icy disregard by her mom that Thea puts off the announcement further, humiliating Jashan and undermining his faith in their relationship. Ever a good sport, he nevertheless agrees to try every unpleasant family Christmas "tradition" from eating fried pig fat with a "fat sauce" to exhausting cross-country skiing to jumping into an icy lake for a winter swim. Despite his willingness to try anything, the family's prejudice and coldness continue, with Thea lacking the spine to scold them for their hostility. Instead, she postpones revealing the engagement further, as if she's embarrassed about it. The last straw comes as Jashan hears for the first time of Thea's ex of five years, who shows up dressed as Santa to mock Jashan. A fight ensues. Jashan's cheerful good humor exhausted, he packs up and leaves. Is this the end of the relationship?
Is It Any Good?
Christmas as Usual starts with a fun idea, the juxtaposition of two cultures during an iconic holiday filled with long-practiced traditions. But the movie quickly lets us down. What is so unforgivable about Thea is the way she does nothing to shield Jashan from the constant nasty rejection he's handed by her mother and brother. (One also wonders, why doesn't Thea have a Norwegian accent like her mother and brother?) Thea proves herself over and over to not only be unkind to her fiancé, but also to be a terrible communicator in general with dreadful judgment, not someone one would want to spend a lifetime with. It's difficult not to feel that humorless, insensitive Thea doesn't deserve the warm, cheerful, and tolerant Jashan. Her family is supposedly heavily steeped in Christmas spirit yet, ironically, nowhere do they display the welcoming warmth and acceptance supposedly associated with the holiday, an issue that isn't addressed at all.
It is Jashan, the non-Christian, who turns out to be accepting, tolerant of oddity, and embracing of difference. If anything, that fact is the movie's biggest, most unwitting message. Jashan points out that Thea will have just as much trouble fitting in with his family in India but the difference is that, unlike Thea, he will have her back.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the universal issue of embracing new people into a family, usually by marriage. Does this movie have anything new to say about this?
Families can discuss why a mother would instantly dislike her daughter's boyfriend when she sees he's of a different race and background.
Jashan complains that Thea doesn't have his back when he's treated abysmally by her disdainful family. Do you agree? If yes, how does that affect your view of her character and whether she's worthy of Jashan?
Why do you think some people are unwilling to accept different ways of doing things? How do you feel about people who seem narrow-minded and closed to the traditions of others?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : December 6, 2023
- Cast : Ida Ursin-Holm , Kanan Gill , Marit Adelaide Andreasse
- Director : Petter Holmsen
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s) , Indian/South Asian Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Comedy
- Run time : 88 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : December 12, 2023
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