A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd (the two Pauls) in the role of two rather inept Canadian Christmas tree salesmen and the quirky characters they encounter while in New York City cannot save this flick from the big yawn category.Why this story doesn't work I do not know. All the right ingredients are there for a light hearted funny story but it just can't bring it together. Sort of like the two Pauls trying to sell their trees when they set up in NYC. No one really notices them except for a few and their sales are almost nil. That's this movie. Then the one on parole turns to his criminal mind to bring in the buyers. This action should have had some humor to it but his actions comes across as desperate and sad. And the piano heist at the closing of the story just comes across as unbelievable instead of being wickedly sneaky and crafty. The two Pauls should have been able to create more lighthearted and endearing characters. But sorrowfully for me that just doesn't happen.

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."

This movie is disgusting and has non stop left wing agenda written into almost every part,, The only people that will like this movie and/or say its good or make excuses etc,,, are left wing.. The movie shows a nice part of a man vomiting,,, divorce, theft, displaying support of the gay agenda my attempting to normalize it but they don't stop at any of that, they had to throw in some jabs at Putin... the movie was about normalizing all the left wing agendas. The review says that a minimum of 10 lines is required but this movie is not worth ten lines of writing. I would add more details but I had to turn the sound off of the movie because it was not really a movie, it was more a left wing propaganda movie.

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