‘Delivery by Christmas’ is a Christmas-themed, Polish romcom. The plot revolves around a hardworking courier lady who tries to save the Christmas spirit after all the parcels get wrongly delivered due to a spiteful co-worker’s antiques.
Story
Maria is a cheerful single mother who gives her all at work. Maria is a courier by trade, and because it is the holiday season, she brings her son, Maks, with her. Maria meets Krzysztof on one of these deliveries.
Krzysztof requests that Maria go to his grandfather’s house and request that something be delivered to him. Although, the start of all the problems begins when Maria’s co-worker wrongly labels all of her assigned parcels, out of mere spite.
On Christmas Eve, Krzysztof finds Maria’s house and pursues her to help him receive his correct parcel (his parcel too has been lost due to mislabeling). This is when Maria realises that the gift that she had bought for her son is missing too. Maria and Krzysztof now set out on a mission to retrieve and re-deliver as many parcels as possible.
On the mission, Krzysztof tries to steal Maria’s van in order to get his work done more quickly. However, it backfires when two cops catch him and reveal that Maria’s car’s technical inspection is overdue. Krzysztof temporarily escapes, but the police are on now the tail too.
After much chaos, Krzysztof gets his parcel which is sent to him by his grandfather. However, much to his disappointment – instead of the wedding ring which he was expecting to receive, Krzysztof receives an inappropriate-looking statue. Maria offers Krzysztof her old ring. Simultaneously, it is seen that Maria discovers the truth of mislabeling the parcels but forgives the perpetrator anyways.
Towards the end of ‘Delivery by Christmas’, Krzysztof reconciles with his grandfather after a brief confrontation and thus plans to move in with him. Maria, upon finding out that Maks had stolen a miniature model ship from Krzysztof’s grandfather, takes her son to return the item.
On the way to return, Krzysztof sees that the police that was previously after him, are in the same cross-lane as Maria and him. Despite trying to safeguard Maria, Krzysztof and her get arrested. But along with them, are Maks and a fish in a tub of water.
The police suggest Krzysztof and Maria throw the fish into the river, but while handcuffed to each other. In the concluding scene of ‘Delivery by Christmas’, Krzysztof returns Maria her ring and advises her to move on.
Maria, in response, throws her ring into the waters as well and talks about letting go of her “emotional baggage”.
Performances
The performances are quite mediocre. There are no elements where one would be awe-struck. Monika Frajczyk, who plays Maria, has done a pretty good job in comparison to the others. The best would be Franciszek Krupowicz, who played the role of Maks.
Other actors such as Piotr Pacek, Miroslaw Baka, Dorota Kolak, and so on, have done an adequate job.
Positives
‘Delivery by Christmas’ has an interesting storyline. It is something new and fresh, making it a great one-time watch.
It lives up to the ‘bittersweet’ label ascribed to it. The movie does not exactly have a happy ending, however, there are glimpses of hope shown towards the end.
Negatives
There are too many subplots, which usually are a great addition to movies, but ‘Delivery by Christmas’ has far too many of them, resulting in a distracted and incoherent mess of a story.
There are so many loose ends that could have been stitched beautifully. For example, why Krzysztof is not cordial with his grandfather as a storyline is unclear, which could have benefited from more explanation.
Verdict
Viewers may want to watch this movie because it is Christmas-themed and it is the holiday season. However, this movie is quite mediocre despite having a good storyline.
Delivery by Christmas
Director: Aleksandra Kulakowska, Maciej Prykowski
Date Created: 2022-12-07 13:30
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