It’s a Norwegian production, with names and faces that most of us Stateside wouldn’t recognize. Per-Olav Sørensen serves as director and is one of many writers. The English dubbing isn’t as distracting as it often is. It’s massive ensemble cast bring their own story. Love, greed, humor, sadness – there’s something for everyone.
The story is set at Oslo International Airport. It’s December 23, and a massive snowstorm has stranded thousands of travelers. I love movies/shows like this. A singular location (for the most part) with a group of strangers each doing their own thing. We are gradually introduced to the bevy of characters we are about to follow. The entire series takes place in a single night.
Lots of Subplots
There are too many characters to list. Many of which are identified only by their job or reason for being at the airport. A young woman (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) is searching for father whom she has never met. A famous pop singer (Ida Elise Broch) struggles with her fame. A mother (Ariadna Cabrol) needs to get her son to New York for an expensive surgery. Diana (Hanna Ardéhn) is a hapless romantic en route to Paris. The Christmas scrooge element is represented by a rich, rude lawyer (Alexandra Rapaport) and a gruff pianist (Dennis Storhøi).
My favorite characters were a garrulous traveler, played by Jan Gunnar Røise, a cute priest (Maibritt Saerens) and a hysterical Santa (Ibrahim Faal) who we first meet as he’s chastising a little girl who wants an expensive present. The all-night lounge is manned by a bartender (Jon Øigarden) who offers his pearls to anyone that will listen.
And that didn’t cover half of the characters.
“A Storm for Christmas” is great because of its fast-paced format. The direction jumps from person to person and their own entanglements. By the second episode we feel like we know all these people. By the end, we will also care for all of them.
Nameless strangers at an airport rarely get the opportunity to mingle. Here, they are brought together by circumstance, and learn to co-exist in an organic and peaceful way. At least for the night.
“A Storm for Christmas” is an excellent series. Give it a shot for some festive laughs in an unusual format. It may land a spot in your seasonal rotation.
“A Storm for Christmas” is available to stream on Netflix.
1 Comment
I agree 100% but would strongly urge people to listen in the original language and have subtitles, especially if you’re watching for the second (or third!) time, when you already have a sense of what’s going on. However good the dubbing is, you’re getting a dislocated experience, with the human being presented in front of you fractured into two people. The acting is wonderful in this series, and that includes the voice work. Work of this quality deserves that we maybe do a bit of work too.