Have you ever given a thought to delivery drivers at Christmas? I’m part of the problem here; stuff can’t be sent too fast nor arrive too early for my tastes. “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” is the name of the game, and God help the poor bastards who must incur the gift rap. Most delivery work is seasonal, of course, so most of these part-time cannon fodder don’t know it sucks year-round; you just only notice at Christmas. Well, here’s a story for the delivery every-Polish-person in all of us.
Single mother Marysia (Monika Frajczyk) is hoping to make her Delivery by Christmas in order to spend some QT with her kid, Maks. At a post-work Christmas get together, a co-worker is a dick. Huh, would calling him a Polish kielbasa be more appropriate here? Anyway, the co-worker stumbles across Marysia’s outgoing and switches all the labels. Next day, which I believe is Christmas Eve, Marysia delivers all the packages to all the wrong people, which would be understandable-if-lame except for the fact that customer Krzysztof (Piotr Pacek) ain’t takin’ any chances on the re-delivery. He insists upon joining Marysia for her apology tour of greater Warsaw.
How would you like to work an angry Christmas Eve? How would you like to escort a pissed off customer the whole time?
Hey, tis the season … and the deliveries make the film, for some are serious (like the sonogram showing a live baby-to-be), some practical (like a pair of slippers), some fun (like a toy schooner), and some just set us up
for raised eyebrows (like an erotic statue). Warning: the latter leads to old people nudity. Proceed with caution.
I dunno how it works in Poland, but if you get delivered something wrong in the US, you get to keep it, even if it is a signed contract to which you are not a party. I imagine this same tale told in the non-fictional US leads to several fake apologies (only issued to those who complain), some minor insurance fraud, a regifting after the fact, and possibly one or two folks no longer being employed. This film went for none of that, making Marysia drive all over creation, even running out of gas, to collect the misdeliveries and redistribute them properly.
Delivery by Christmas has a real Love Actually feel, with a collection of light-yet-endearing mini-films of folks impacted by the misdeliveries. Honestly, they all had at least a small amount of charm, from the thirty-four year old leech who goes from believing he’s a father to “since you’re not, it’s time you lived on your own, son” to the dressmaker who gets the wrong message love-wise … or was it? It’s hard to take the constant scowl of Piotr Pacek, a face that -for better or worse- would never, ever end up in an American romcom. And we’d like to see our abused heroine get a break or two, which unfortunately seems like a tall ask. However, Delivery by Christmas does have enough charm to be enjoyed Christmas or no, even outside Poland.
Victim to a Christmas co-worker troll
Maria needs to avoid employment coal
So she takes to the road
With her Miss Santa load
Do you suppose Warsaw contains the North Pole?
Rated TV-MA, 97 Minutes
Director: Aleksandra Kulakowska. Maciej Prykowski
Writer: Aleksandra Kulakowska. Maciej Prykowski, Maria Pulawska
Genre: Love Actually in Polish
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who live for the loosely connected tale
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: If you didn’t enjoy Love Actually in English, you’ll probably not be a fan of its Polish knock-off
