Christmas movies come in two forms: happy, nostalgic celebrations of the season’s glad tidings and sour, caustic takedowns of the holiday’s forced warmth and merriment. All Is Bright is decidedly in the latter category. Its title a feint, All Is Bright submerges itself in melancholy, casting a compassionate eye over characters laid low by disappointing life choices that are amplified by the oncoming rush of Christmastime cheer. You laugh neither with nor at these people—you just hang on and hope their depression doesn’t bring you down with them.
This is the second film from director Phil Morrison, whose first, 2005’s Junebug, was a pitch-perfect mixture of comedy, drama and cultural observation. Beyond being a launching pad for then-little-known actress Amy Adams, Junebug was a precise study of red- and blue-state divide as witnessed in one family. All Is Bright is a very different kind of film, and far less successful. But once again Morrison permits his characters’ clear foibles to flower without condemnation. From his two movies, it seems apparent that he’s interested in the behavior of everyday people, wondering how they make peace with their failings. But where Junebug’s small story belied its grand themes, All Is Bright stays minuscule, never quite transcending its meager sadness.
The films stars Paul Giamatti, an ideal actor to play Dennis, who’s a nobody loser just released from prison after four years for a botched bank robbery. With his resigned eyes and schlumpy posture, Dennis returns to his home to discover that his wife, Therese (Amy Landecker), has told their young daughter that he’s dead and has fallen in love with Rene (Paul Rudd), Dennis’s good friend whose screw-up at the heist got Dennis arrested. Heartbroken and angry, Dennis needs a job, but in his small Canadian town work is hard to find—until, that is, Rene offers to help. The two men will drive into New York City and sell Christmas trees, which will require Dennis to spend a lot of time with the man who ruined his life.