''All Is Bright'' (released as ''Almost Christmas'' in the UK) is a 2013 comedy-drama film directed by

Phil Morrison Phil Morrison may refer to: * Phil Morrison (yacht designer) (born 1946), British yacht designer * Phil Morrison (director), American film and television director * Phil Morrison (driver) (born 1977), British race driver * Phil Morrison (baseball ...

. It stars

Paul Giamatti Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (; born June 6, 1967) is an American actor and film producer. He first garnered attention for his breakout role in '' Private Parts'' as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton, leading to supporting roles in ''Saving Private R ...

and

Paul Rudd Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame i ...

, with

Sally Hawkins Sally Cecilia Hawkins (born 27 April 1976) is an English actress who began her career on stage and then moved into film. She has received several awards including a Golden Globe Award and the Berlin International Film Festival's Silver Bear fo ...

and Amy Landecker in supporting roles. The film debuted at the 2013

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

, with a

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

release following on September 10, 2013. It was released in theaters on October 4, 2013.

Plot

Out on parole in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

after serving four years for stealing, Dennis (Giamatti) returns home to find out his wife Therese told his daughter Michi he died of cancer. He also discovers his old friend and former accomplice Rene (Rudd) is in a relationship with his ex. Dennis has a brief fit of rage at Therese and later lands one punch on Rene. Homeless and desperate for work as there is a recession, he reluctantly asks Rene if he can go with him to sell Christmas trees in New York City. Dennis wants to make enough money to buy his estranged daughter the piano she has always wanted. In

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, Dennis gets thrown out of a café and the following day has an altercation with another tree salesman. Finally Olga, a Russian-born woman, buys the first tree and they gradually start hustling and moving their trees. Olga asks Dennis to straighten the tree as an excuse, to the house where she cleans for a couple of dentists, offering him food and a shower. The next day the men are hit with a tree selling rush. Amidst the sales, Rene's wife Marie calls, letting him know she wants him to sign divorce papers. Upset, he takes off for a few days, so Dennis is left in charge. When Rene reappears, he has an engagement ring for Therese. Dennis becomes irate, telling two guys looking to buy a tree that his friend stole his wife from him while he was in prison. He becomes inspired to call his ex collect, but she doesn't accept the charges. Distraught, he visits Olga the next day and asks her to help him find his daughter a piano. Olga visits them at their tree-selling lot with vodka, and she, Rene, Dennis and Nzomo, an African who had helped with the tree selling, drink through the night. The next day, as Dennis and Rene are robbed by a supposedly blind man who had bought a tree from them, Dennis convinces Olga to help them take the dentists' Steinway. Returning to their small Quebec town, Dennis watches from a distance as Michi plays her new piano, then hugs her mom and Rene happily.

Cast

as Dennis *

as Rene *

as Olga * Amy Landecker as Therese * Peter Hermann as Monsieur Tremblay *

Emory Cohen Emory Isaac Cohen (born March 13, 1990) is an American actor. He made his feature film debut in '' Afterschool'' (2008). He is best known for his roles as AJ Cross in Derek Cianfrance's film ''The Place Beyond the Pines'' (2012), Tony Fiorello ...

as Lou *

Halley Feiffer Halley Feiffer (born November 20, 1984) is an American actress and playwright. Early life and education Feiffer was raised in a Jewish family, the daughter of famed satirist and cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and writer, actor, and comedian Jenny Alle ...

as Claire *

Colman Domingo Colman Jason Domingo (born November 28, 1969) is an American actor, writer, and director widely known for his performance as Mr. Bones in the Broadway musical '' The Scottsboro Boys'' (2011), and for his role as recovering drug addict Ali on HBO ...

as Nzomo

Production

The opening of the movie is set in Quebec, Canada, and appears to have been shot in Quebec, Canada. We see an Autoroute 40 and 80 kph highway signs as Paul Giamatti walks along the highway. Later we see Paul on a sidewalk with cars bearing Quebec license plates and he stops to pick up a Loonie. After loading the trees the "Paul and Paul" drive to the USA. We see they actually filmed a scene on Ontario's 401 Westbound, approaching exit 441, to Ontario Highway 137, which leads to the US border and connects to interstate 81 (NY). ''All Is Bright'' was filmed in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Its name was changed from the original title of ''Almost Christmas'' to ''All Is Bright''. The antics of the two lead characters have been suggested to be based on the amalgamation of famous misadventures of employees from North Pole Xmas Trees, a famous family business from Nashua, New Hampshire.

Reception

The film has approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on reviews, with an average rating of . The critical consensus states: "Well-acted but uneven, ''All Is Bright'' strands a pair of strong performances from Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd in a meandering script."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reports a weighted average of 54 out of 100 based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links