When the calendar turns past Thanksgiving and heads into what most people in this country refer to as the Christmas season (but is actually just Advent to us Catholics), I always have the hope that it will be the best one yet.  That is a lot of pressure, but it is also part of Christmas as Usual for many of us, and for those in the film of the same name.  As you will see, there are some added stressors in what is apparently based on a true story.  It all makes for a familiar and, at the same time alien, Christmas viewing experience.  You can decide for yourself whether this is a good thing.

You may not think it is Christmas as Usual as the film begins, particularly if you are unable to speak Norwegian.  As an aside, I prefer dubbing to readings subtitles, so I had to make a quick audio judgement.  Anyway, it is Thea (Ida Ursin-Holm) who is speaking her native Scandinavian language as she returns to her Los Angeles apartment she shares with her boyfriend, Jashan (Kanan Gill).  Though he is Indian, he gives you the first clue as to the time of the year as he greets her dressed as Santa Claus, and with a question.  Getting on a knee, he asks her to marry him.  There is a moment of hesitation, but she soon enthusiastically says yes.  Because Christmas is approaching, she has her own proposal: that they spend the holidays in Norway with her family.  His yes is more immediate and soon they are on their way to the Scandinavian country.  The reason why she was not more prompt with her answer is because of the emphasis her family places on Christmas.  Their traditions have an added emphasis since her father recently died.  Since then, her mother, Anne-Lise (Marit Andreassen), has held extra tightly to their annual activities.  Thea fears upsetting Anne-Lise with any kind of disruption, including an engagement announcement, so she does not immediately tell her mother the news of their upcoming nuptials.  Further, Anne-Lise believes that Thea’s relationship with Jashan is one of her phases, and that her daughter is actually meant to be with their longtime neighbor, Jørgen (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen).  Thus, when Jashan and Thea finally arrive in her tiny hometown, there is some confusion and a lot more awkwardness all around as to how everyone should behave.  Thea does some explaining on their first night.  First, she says that she is waiting for the right moment to tell her mother about the engagement.  Next, Thea did not want her mother to make a fuss, instead hoping to organically incorporate Jashan into their activities.  From here, the majority of the jokes are related either to how seemingly crazy it is to have somebody raised in Indian culture take part in Norwegian Christmas customs, or the way different aspects of each other’s characters come out at inopportune moments.  It is all rather predictable, so I will touch on only a few of the moments.  None of this is helped when Thea’s brother, Simen (Erik Follestad), arrives with his wife, Hildegunn (Veslemøy Mørkrid), and young daughter, Ronja (Matilde Hovdegard).  Simen, in particular, voices his doubts that Anne-Lise could approve of Jashan at a time like Christmas.  Nonetheless, Thea presses forward.  The entire time, Jashan goes along with the obfuscation and taking part in all the traditions.  At one point, his desire to impress probably goes overboard when, without asking permission, he cooks an Indian-style dinner.  Thea tries to cover for this by saying that it had been partially her idea, but it soon devolves into chaos when everyone else finds they cannot handle the spiciness of the dishes.  Then, to make matters worse, Jashan translates the Sanskrit tattoo on Hildegunn’s arm as meaning “white girl” instead of “inner peace” as she believes.  Another awful moment comes when, following a dip in an icy lake, Jashan has a sneezing fit in church while Ronja is part of a recital.  During the little girl’s solo, he is outside loudly talking to his mother while everyone inside can hear him.  The worst moment comes on Christmas Eve, probably the most important night of the cycle of days surrounding the holiday for Thea’s family.  They each don traditional garb, as does Jashan with an Indian equivalent, and they start with dinner.  It is another undigestible meal for the native Indian, but it goes down better with some alcohol and Indian spices.  However, those Indian spices have some somewhat racist labels, at least to a slightly inebriated Jashan.  Finally, he gets into a fight with Jørgen, who manages to get into the house dressed as Santa Claus.  After crashing into the Christmas tree, Jashan leaves for the airport.  It is while sitting in the living room in the aftermath, sadly knocking back shots, that she realizes that Jashan’s suggestion that she had not been on his side is true.  Instead, like Ronja singing for her grandmother, she had just been trying to please Anne-Lise.  Ronja’s admission convinces Anne-Lise that she had been behaving poorly, too.  Thus, they all get into Anne-Lise’s car and make it to the airport in time to stop Jashan from boarding an airplane, though Thea has to dodge security to do so.  We close with them back in Norway for the following Christmas, everyone more accepting, though Anne-Lise is still surprised when Jashan says that the wedding will be in India.

It seems like with the majority of these Christmas movies, and Christmas as Usual is no exception, are simply thinly veiled romantic comedies.  Perhaps this is me being a stereotypical guy, but I am not sure what it is about the holiday that makes people think romance.  Another aspect to my confusion over such associations is the fact that I live in Florida.  A typical Norwegian Christmas involves snow, and it seems like being shut in by wintry weather is some kind of aphrodisiac, at least to moviemakers.  Thus, it is hard to draw out Catholic themes from such films.  There is one interesting moment, though, and it comes at the church where Ronja’s recital takes place.  It is not a Catholic church, unfortunately, and Norway is not known for its affiliations with Rome.  What is interesting is what Thea says to Jashan’s confusion about why they are sitting in the pews when she is not Christian, other than to see Ronja.  Thea replies by simply saying that it is Christmas as if it is the most logical and obvious place for a person to be on this day.  In many of these reviews I have complained that society has lost the “reason for the season,” that being the birth of Jesus.  With this in mind, what location would be more appropriate to be on Christmas Eve than a Christian church.  Yet, Thea is dismissive of the suggestion that she is a Christian when Jashan asks, as if it is a silly question.  I believe there is much to be said about the way society views Christmas in this exchange than in nearly any other film I have watched over the past couple of weeks.

As I alluded to at the beginning of the second paragraph, Christmas as Usual is a foreign film.  I do not know why, but this seems to turn people away from watching a lot of solid movies, and I would put this one in that category.  It is predictable but fun . . . enough.  If there is anything unique about it, it is the clash of cultures, though I am sure this this has been done, too.  Either way, you could do worse.