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While out on parole, Dennis reluctantly takes a job selling Christmas trees with his old buddy Rene in order to make enough money to buy his estranged daughter the piano she’s always wanted.
Two French Canadians travel to New York City during the holiday season with a get-rich-quick scheme of selling Christmas trees. Dennis (Paul Giamatti) is a no-nonsense, recently released ex-con trying to get his life – and his wife – back. Rene (Paul Rudd) is Dennis’ charming, shallow, former partner-in-crime who is now living with Dennis’ estranged wife Therese (Amy Landecker). Feeling guilty and knowing Dennis needs a job, Rene reluctantly agrees to make Dennis a partner in the scheme. Though the two former friends struggle with each other and an eclectic array of tough New York customers, they discover much about themselves in the process.
“All is Bright” is a dark comedy which doesn’t tug at the heart strings too much. And that’s a good thing. Too many Christmas-themed movies are saturated in saccharin but here, we’re introduced to these likable but flawed characters and just watch them do their thing, consequences and all. When Dennis and Rene arrive in New York, Rene’s old stomping ground has been taken over by some pompous new folk but thanks to Dennis and his “persuasive ways”, they quickly depart. After setting up their trees, Dennis makes a friend in a Russian nanny to a wealthy family named Olga, wonderfully played by Sally Hawkins. Dennis and Rene squabble and fight and along the way, Dennis begins to see Rene’s sincerity in wanting to marry Therese but he still can’t get her out of his head. He wants to be there for his family, he wants to do the right thing but finds going straight much harder than he thought and much less rewarding that stealing. As they’re getting ready to leave New York, Dennis decides to execute one last heist he simply cannot pass up.
Director Phil Morrison had a break-out hit with his 2005 drama “Jundbug” and while that movie soared in terms of character development and story arc, “All is Bright” wants to duplicate that success so bad but instead, it falls short. Way short. I’ve never seen Paul Giamatti give a bad performance, even in the ridiculously, zany, over-the-top “Shoot ‘Em Up” and here, he continues to prove himself as one of the greatest working actors today. I’ve watched Paul Rudd start out in garbage like “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” and work his way up through some wonderful movies like “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and “Prince Avalanche” but for the most part, he always seems to be playing himself. In “All is Bright”, he gets the chance to stretch his acting abilities and proves to be a very competent and gifted actor. One of the major issues I had with this film was its location. While we glimpse some beautiful New York landmarks as they make their way into the city, the rest of the film is confined to one area and because of this, there isn’t an awful lot of room for anything worthwhile to happen so some of the drama seems forced.
In “Reservoir Dogs”, most of the action takes place in an enclosed warehouse but Tarantino constantly kept it fresh with the addition of new character arcs, twists and the use of ingenious flashbacks. Here, the film’s pacing is very slow to take off and once it does, it doesn’t pick up too much momentum and for this film, that’s a shame. I don’t mind a long and slow narrative as long as the story and the characters keep me involved and while Mr. Rudd and Mr. Giamatti are always engaging, the story begins to run out of steam. The final act where Dennis and Rene pull one more caper, seemed totally out of place and altogether unbelievable, given their situation and time constraints. I would recommend “All is Bright” solely for the performances of its enigmatic leads.
In stores November 19th
