This isn't just staggeringly, stultifyingly bad - even by the standards of low-budget Christmas romcoms - it's on another level entirely. Like all beloved festive classics, it stars model Caprice and Duncan from Blue and is funded by the Serbian government. Yep, you read that correctly. What's next - Paddington in Pancevo?
Huge chunks of dialog sound like they've been lifted from a Wikipedia article or written by the Serbian tourist board. Almost everyone is completely wooden - as wooden as the "golden pines" of Zlatibor, where most of the film takes place. Characters randomly enthuse about how amazing Serbia and its people are. Caprice and her love interest "Hunter" visit an ethnological museum and a knitting museum and learn about the traditions of Serbian peasants. Duncan from Blue shows up as a sexy Santa cowboy and actually gives the best performance in the movie - because he alone seems to get how ridiculous the whole thing is and just has fun with it.
Performance-wise Caprice is pretty bad, but shockingly, the guy playing her love interest (Philip Boyd) is much worse despite the fact he's a far more experienced actor. She's at least likeable and game here, but his line delivery is atrocious. She's doing her best, but he's apathetic and totally zoned out.
A metafictional touch adds another layer of strangeness to the film, but also leads to its best scene. The protagonist is a director of mass-produced low-budget Christmas movies. She comes to Serbia to track down a US expat actor who starred in one of her previous hits. But her exploitative producer plots to make a cheap Christmas film in Serbia and pay the locals a pittance. There's a thoughtful scene where the two leads discuss the importance of Christmas movies as an emotional bulwark, and how their cheesiness and safe, comforting formulaic nature is part of the reason people like them. It's a well-written scene that belongs in a smarter movie, and is unfortunately killed on-screen by the poor performances.
Avoid at all costs? No. Watch it for the curiosity value. There's so much overt product placement you'll be booking a flight to Belgrade and a room in Hotel Zlatibor before you know it. After all, who knows - if Caprice can find the man of her dreams in provincial Serbia, maybe you can too...
