The reviews on this movie were mixed and I think that I can see why. Christmas movies - rather, movies perceived to have a Christmas theme - are expected to be some degree of cheerful and sappy. This movie was not necessarily about Christmas and thus lacked what so many people probably were hoping for. One review went so far as to call it "dark", which is ridiculous. When I sit down to watch a movie I hope for a good story that is in some way original and I think that this movie delivered on both. The two leads are phenomenal and the story had just the right amount of depth and even a surprise or two. I recommend that the viewer just sit back and enjoy the ride.
The one complaint that I had was the choice of music. Growing up I was a huge George Michael fan so I am familiar with the songs that were available to be used. The use of "Heal the Pain" was excellent, particularly when they used just the music played by violins as a music bed. Other times the song did not fit the scene. For example, "Praying for Time" was played over the ice skating scene and that completely did not fit as that song is actually quite dark. Also, at times it felt like the director was trying to re-create Mama Mia because at times we were hit with one song after another.
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Review by AnaVIP 4BlockedParent2020-02-02T10:17:32Z
This is not a typical Christmas movie. Unlike those Hallmark's generic ones, this one is actually heartfelt. But for goodness sake, if you want to include politics and other cultures, do some research before writing a script! I was annoyed through the whole thing. First of all, Yugoslavia did not exist in 1999, it was already fallen apart and divided into separate countries, so the beginning of the movie was absolutely ridiculous. I was also baffled by that catholic cathedral, but at the end they mentioned they were Croatians, so that's fine since majority are catholics there, but there would not be any singing in English that's for sure. And what on earth does KGB or Poland have to do with EX YU? KGB was agency in Soviet Union, there's no connection with Yugoslavia whatsoever, so I guess that moment and the one where Petra blames Poland supposed to be a comic relief, never mind it makes no sense at all. Ema Thompson's pronunciation of Serbo-Croatian is midly said very bad. She spoke my mother tongue and I couldn't understand a word she said. Her accentuation and pronunciation was Russian, she really could've tried a bit more to learn how to properly say those few sentences she had. Emilia, on the other hand, really put an effort into it and spoke everything correctly.
These idiocy put aside, it's a good movie. Emilia is adorable and wonderful as always. Just for her and that twist at the end, I give it 8/10.