‘This is not a Christmas movie’ review: will it finally be the Dutch Christmas classic?
Director: Michael Middelkoop | Script: Isis Cabolet, Lotte Tabbers | Cast: Jacqueline Blom (Brechtje), Laura Bakker (Jamea), Onno Aerts (JJ), Georgina Verbaan (Louise), René van Zinnicq Bergman (Martijn), etc. | Playing time: 105 minutes | Year: 2024
Hallmark has December to thank for an annual tsunami of terrible Christmas movies, filled with paper-thin characters and very boring romances. But what if the happy union goes completely off the rails? This is not a Christmas movie. transform the winter wonderland into the polarized canals of Amsterdam and pit different sides of the table against each other during Christmas dinner. We may no longer be able to overcome our differences of opinion, but with this mosaic comedy film we can still laugh about them.
The very sweet voice-over of Paul de Leeuw, reborn as Santa Claus, already affirms from the first moments that what we are watching is not a Christmas movie. We can immediately enjoy the worst Christmas drinks ever captured on film. And the main characters fare a little better. Mother Brechtje of the Zwaan family has been suspended from drama school for racially treating one of her students. During the subsequent media storm, Father Martijn sees the opportunity to have an affair with his assistant. And that’s where the party just begins.
On the eve of Christmas Eve, her daughter Jos, who also teaches gender equality at primary school, gets into a fight with a footballer father and has doubts about her friend’s sexual interests. Son-in-law Justus has lost his “sex appeal” and is desperately searching for his masculinity. And his son Beer is a rapper. The irony of this supposedly ordinary Amsterdam family is obvious. Director Michael Middelkoop has come a long way since the legendary NPO series Shelf fillers and luckily brought Oscar Aerts along for a lot of fun in the polder.
Under Middelkoop’s direction, the film repeatedly ventures to the edge of vicarious embarrassment, including awkward sex scenes and cringe-worthy blunders. The unhappy family members are extremely upset by the “canal belt nonsense” and the “middle-aged nonsense”, and in the next scene they are once again guilty of these bourgeois evils. The older generation seems to be lost in the multicultural society, while the young people carelessly cross each other’s borders. What is still normal? No idea.
The climax of the film is, of course, Christmas dinner. All the frustrations and stupidities from the previous events explode and turn everyone present into horrible characters that the viewer can laugh at. The cutting satire is Dutch humor at its finest and surprisingly well executed. The movie addresses the conversations we don’t want to have and shows us once again how stupid we really are.
This is not a Christmas movie. triumphs with enthusiasm as a seasoned Dutch comedy in the Christmas tradition everything is love. But where is Christmas? The film stays true to Action’s aesthetic of ugly Christmas sweaters, HEMA fairy lights, and a pack of red and gold Christmas decorations, but the peaceful message is made into mincemeat. It’s almost a shame that the filmmakers have to return to Christmas movie conventions for the sweet ending. But it’s that simple die hard It’s a bloody Christmas movie in disguise This is not a Christmas movie. a story that connects through all the satire and shame.
This is not a Christmas movie. can be seen in main video.