''All Is Bright'' (released as ''Almost Christmas'' in the UK) is a 2013

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film directed by Phil Morrison. It stars

Paul Giamatti Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti ( ; born June6, 1967) is an American actor. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globes, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and a British Academy Film Award. After studying a ...

and

Paul Rudd Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. Rudd studied theatre at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before making his acting debut in 1991. He was included on the ''Forbes'' Celebrity 100 li ...

, with

Sally Hawkins Sally Cecilia Hawkins (born 27 April 1976) is an English actress of stage and screen. She began her career on stage and then moved into film, for which she has received several accolades including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominatio ...

and

Amy Landecker Amy Lauren Landecker (born September 30, 1969) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Sarah Pfefferman on the Amazon Prime Video, Amazon comedy-drama series ''Transparent (TV series), Transparent'' (2014–2019), as well as her supp ...

in supporting roles. The film debuted at the 2013

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

, with a

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

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

Plot

Out on parole in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

after serving four years for stealing, Dennis (Giamatti) returns home to find that his wife Therese has told his daughter Michi he has 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 Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, 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 the 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 does not 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 Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth le ...

. 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 *

as Therese * Peter Hermann as Monsieur Tremblay * Emory Cohen as Lou * Halley Feiffer as Claire *

Colman Domingo Colman Jason Domingo (born November 28, 1969) is an American actor, playwright, and director. Prominent Colman Domingo on screen and stage, on both screen and stage since the 2010s, Domingo has received List of awards and nominations received by ...

as Nzomo *

Curtiss Cook Curtiss Cook (born October 2, 1968) is an American character actor known for his roles in ''House of Cards'', ''Manifest'', ''Mayans M.C.'', ''Luke Cage'', '' Narcos'', and others. Early life and education Cook was born in Dayton, Ohio on Octob ...

as Kevin

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 Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at Bushwick Inlet Park and McCarren Park; on the southeast by the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and East ...

. 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 aggregator, 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 ...

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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

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

References

External links