The Curse, on Viaplay

Curses are usually the stuff of the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, but occasionally Church clergy will indulge—usually with good reason. For instance, Bishop Dunbar famously cursed the border reivers. Similarly, the Pope supposedly cursed Boguslaw Brzezinski for stealing a painting with healing properties (stealing is a sin, after all). Unfortunately, the curse still plagues Brzezinski’s descendants. That would be Monia and Nastka and their mother and grandma. Tired of their constant misfortune, the current surviving Brzezinski progenies try to break their family hex, through some extreme (and hopefully) comedic measures in Tomasz Konecki’s The Curse, which premieres tomorrow on Viaplay.

Monia was supposed to leave on a Parisian vacation, but, somehow, she sabotaged it, as usual. Instead, she decides to visit her mom and grandmother, but is disappointed to find her irresponsible sister Nastka is also cashing with them. She too has suffered more of her usual mishaps. Finally, grandma levels with them. It isn’t their fault, she explains as the backyard gazebo burns down for the sixth or seventh time. It all goes back to old Boguslaw and the Pope.

As the conservative, responsible sister, Monia is initially skeptical, but soon she and Nastka start digging through archives in search of the painting, in hopes of returning it to the Vatican. Conveniently, for the film’s budget, the fateful canvas happens to hang in the local parish church, where it draws a steady stream of pilgrims, since it really seems to work. Of course, the priest takes appropriate precautions with a relic of such power and value. That leaves option two, sacrificing the oldest living family member. That would be the sisters’ semi-estranged aunt, who seems completely unaffected by the curse.

The term “cursed” holds dark supernatural significance, but as a genre film, Konecki’s Curse makes Hallmark’s Good Witch look like The Exorcist. Everything is played for laughs rather than scares. Unfortunately, the humor is always quite broad and usually very shticky. Frankly, most viewers will groan more than laugh.

It is shame, because Agnieszka Wiedlocha brings a lot of screen presence as Monia. Admittedly, Vanessa Aleksander also gamely works to scratch out some laughs as the hard-partying Nastka, but the material is stacked against them both. In contrast, Piotr Trojan’s goofy doofus portrayal of Makaron, the hapless hitman, quickly grows tiresome.

Konecki’s film tries its darnedest to be amiable, but it is just too silly—with little likely lost in translation. Not good enough to recommend, The Curse starts streaming tomorrow (1/22) on Viaplay.