edwagreen Rather depressing film with Paul Giamatti coming out of prison to find that his wife has told his daughter that he is dead. In order to earn money, he agrees to sell holiday trees with a friend. Of course, he finds out that the friend is going to divorce his wife to marry Giamatti's.The two argue in front of customers but eventually the business takes off. They make quite a bit of money only to fall victim to a robbery.The picture becomes somewhat more dramatic and poignant as the two steal a piano to give to Giamatti's daughter. The ending reminded me of Barbara Stanwyck in "Stella Dallas."

Jimmy P A few great actors in one deadpan script -- morality play does not a great film make. Not so cheery and eerily reminiscent of Antonioni's Il Grido in many ways. If you're not used to the accents you could use subtitles for some of the dialog. So, the main character is so sad that you don't laugh, there is that Indie no music and dull- - mundane camera work, but you want to laugh. Giamatti's character is not quite an idiot or a genius, not rehabilitated or remorseful, but he has hope -- kind of. Then there's his ex-wife who's indifferent to him, as he is or was, and over what they were at one-time. Then there is the friend Rene played by Paul Rudd. Rene has a moral high-ground, he's not a thief, but he's an optimistic liar and he has good-looks working for him. Ironically Rene takes his old friend with him to NY out of guilt and need for a friend. So you find out a little bit about the two characters, and they work there magic -- sort of. I lost interest in the film a few days in NY bleak days until Olga comes around. Sally Hawkins character has a hard shell on the outside and a good heart on the inside. She speaks for people and about people. And all good holiday movies have a happy--sad climax and an anti-climax, this film is much sadder than most. (:

pj-naturalfinance I wouldn't call this a comedy. But it is touching and a serious account of struggling for Christmas.There is brilliant subtlety in the plot and ending that is easily not noticed.Part of the film's charm is rooting the origins of Christmas in Quebec, where it deserves to be.The movie is neither depressing nor uplifting while staying interesting, and the choice to make it so is interesting.This is definitely worth seeing. Don't expect too much. Though this is arguably Giamatti's best acting since that wine tasting movie.

john mayfield what an startling film this is. delicate, crystalline, complicated, pure. there are four motifs repeated here... smoking, theft, poverty, and humanity. the first three are agonies. they twist us, they defile us, they make us smaller and darker and less able to realize ourselves and to see each other. the fourth is our only hope, and surprisingly, it is not out of reach. even now, even here. i guess the original title of this movie was Almost Christmas, and now All Is Bright, but i would have called it that... Even Now, Even Here. the writer, Melissa James Gibson, must be a remarkable person, well traveled if not in the world then in her head and heart. she gives us fresh tasty layers of french Canadian, (tabarac!), and a little Inuit and black African and such a wonderfully precise, carved and sculpted Russian individual that i found my inner voice speaking in her hauntingly wrong accent for days after meeting her. "You must have Russian blood." Sally Hawkins says ruefully, sadly. "Why?" Paul Giamatti asks, "Because you do what you must." some movies leave you wanting to see more of the movie, this one left me wanting it to not be a movie at all. i wanted to meet and to continue to be with these people. i still wonder and worry about them, even now. that these big stars would find this script attractive is impressive and gives me hope because surely there is no box office here. turn away ye tweens in your millions, there are no lusting vampires here. and nothing is 3D. there is one gun in the movie, but it needs to be there and it only exists to break hearts, it isn't sexy just as real guns never are. i had forgotten what a precise and life affirming artist Sally Hawkins is since Happy Go Lucky years ago. a poet also needs to be a surgeon, and this actress whose characters are so much like poems would no more betray a gesture or slaughter a syllable than a surgeon might misplace a vein. just to see her work again is worth the time. i remember one scene... a man is trying to talk another man into doing a burglary and when he resists, he grabs a saw and holds it against his friend's throat. whats next? karate chop? car chase? CGI zombies with Mr Pitt in dull pursuit? no. the threatened man reaches over and touches his friend's face. he gets it. he feels the humanity in himself and the other, and he knows the desperation and the cause. that's a good thing. straight men should be able to touch each others face if the need arises, but how often are we allowed to in real life, much less in film? the peevish puny pecking side of me wants to criticize when the movie is unreal, i am too big a fan of realness, i confess. like the absurdity that a Steinway grand piano is a portable gift that plays well in the snow, or that a dingy disloyal woman who sits on her front steps and smokes would have hair that anyone would want to smell. and that loud and glaring final song, although pretty enough, makes us feel that we are being preached at under a neon sign instead of just simply being shared with, which is all we ever wanted. but these are small complaints when all i really come away with is gratitude for amazingly intelligent work. if you have no soul or mind, or want to abandon yours, go see Now You See Me. if you want to spend real time with our flawed and fragile human mirrors, artfully portrayed, see this. jusboutded/salon/blog