BEFORE: Paul Rudd carries over from "Prince Avalanche", and it's very nearly the end of the Movie Year, just ONE more film to go after tonight, and I may wait until after Christmas or llate on Christmas Day to watch it, because it's all about the holiday, but specifically the holiday break.
Things slow down this time of year, just a few work days left and TV is all reruns, because nobody wants to work, not even the crews on the late night shows. Fine by me, I've got my classic holiday films to watch - I saw "Bad Santa 2" the other night (OK, the last half of it, but that counts), and this evening we caught "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (the original one) on TNT. Tonight I think I'll watch "Scrooge", the Albert Finney version which is my favorite one, because it's available on demand. Then tomorrow "A Christmas Story" runs for 24 hours straight, so that's a given, and maybe I can convince my wife to give the "Wonka" prequel a try, even though it's not specifically Christmas-y.
Then after Christmas I'll have to write my wrap-up post for the year, give out my own version of awards, and then figure out where to start the New Year. I had an idea for the first two movies of 2025, but I ruined the linking by watching "Speed Racer", I probably should have saved that movie for another week, because it could have been really helpful in starting off the first week of the new year. Oh, well, I'll figure out something else to do.
THE PLOT: 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.
AFTER: This one's probably been on my list for three or four years, so a few Christmases have come and gone without being able to link to it. BUT, I think I've proven that, given enough time and some planning, I can get to just about anything. Eventually. That's good news for the other films on my list that don't connect to anything else right now - just wait, maybe? There's maybe 20 holiday films that I wouldn't mind watching, and another 10 that I'd consider, only I don't have the cast lists worked out, so really, how would I ever know I could get to them? I said I would try to get to "Christmas in Paradise", a film with Kelsey Grammer that got dropped last year for lack of slots, and then there's "Violent Night" with David Harbour and TWO sequel films to "A Christmas Story", but obviously I can't get to any of those this year, since there's very little year left. I'll try again next time around.
Really, this film kind of feels like it's cut from the same cloth as "Prince Avalanche" - two guys who are very different are forced to work together, they get on each other's nerves as they endure terrible working conditions, and then some very odd things happen, and it all kind of works out. Whether that's for better or for worse, who can say? Sure, there are vast differences between the two films, but at the heart of things, they're essentially the same film, only one is Christmas-themed, though.
We first see Dennis after he's been released from prison - Canadian prison, though, so come on, how bad could that be? - and he tracks down his wife and daughter, only to find that his wife wants nothing more to do with him, and also she's told his daughter that he died. Dennis also learns that she's been seeing his old partner-in-crime, Rene, who he's also forced to turn to for work, since his parole officer can't seem to recommend a decent job that will hire an ex-con, and money's in short supply because there's a recession. Rene's got a money-making scheme that worked out great last year, he borrowed money to buy a truck full of Christmas trees from a tree farm and drove them down to New York City, and made five times the cost of the trees, so he paid back the loan and kept the difference.
What could POSSIBLY go wrong? Well, just about everything, as you might imagine. The two men can't seem to agree on how the trees should be sold, or who should be in charge of the prices or the money, or who should sleep in the bed in the little shack to keep an eye on the tree lot overnight. Things get bad when they learn that another, nicer-looking tree lot has opened up across the street, and they get worse when 10 days go by and nobody has bought one tree. The outlook is bleak and they have no idea how they're going to turn a profit, or even pay back the initial loan for the cost of the trees.
I was forced to watch this on a DVD I burned, even though it's available on demand - I tried to watch it on Starz but the image was all screwed up and pixellated, not sure if there's a problem with my cable reception or if the Starz channel was having some technical difficulties, but either way I had no captions, so I missed a few plot points, but I got the gist of the storyline. Olga is a woman who bought the first tree from Dennis & Rene's lot, and she overpaid because I guess she felt sorry for them? Or maybe she was interested in Dennis, it's a bit tough to say. She let him take a shower in the Brooklyn townhouse she lived in - I thought maybe she was rich but I guess she just cleans that house for a pair of dentists who are never home?
There's also a weird message in the film, like Dennis is an ex-con and a thief, but he swears he's gone straight, only he really hasn't, because a thief never stops being a thief? Also, you might think that when their Christmas tree business gets robbed, maybe Dennis would learn some lesson from that, but no, he really doesn't, because his answer for how to fix things is to just steal more stuff. I guess when all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail? Anyway, it's not a great holiday message because stealing actually works out for him, it's like that "Grinch" movie if the scheme to rob Whoville actually worked and the Grinch never felt bad about it at all.
But if you've ever seen people selling Christmas trees on the street and wondered about their backstories, well, here is such a movie. And then of course the human condition dictates that if two people are forced to work together, they may end up hating each other before they learn to tolerate each other - that's probably universal, of course if the other person is dating your ex then it's unlikely you'll ever see eye to eye. Except maybe on Christmas? I've never sold Christmas trees, but I've done my time in a Comic-Con booth, selling DVDs and animation art - I know what it feels like to sit there for HOURS while nobody buys anything, and then the rush you get later on when suddenly everybody wants to buy what you have at once, and that feeling can turn your day right around.
I also learned that without the captions on, I'm now unable to distinguish between the name "Dennis" and the word "dentists". Considering there's a main character here named Dennis and Olga works as a cleaning lady for dentists, naturally I was confused. But I'm a fan of both Pauls, Giamatti and Rudd, so that goes a long way here. And I'm also thrilled to finally cross this Christmas movie off the list. Now tonight I'll watch "Scrooge" to get me in an extra holiday mood.
If you're in NYC, the restaurant seen in this 2013 film is still in business in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, it's called the Three Decker Diner on Manhattan Ave. and they have some omelettes named after the movies "Mean Streets", "New York Stories" and "The Departed". I've never been there, and I'm not in the Greenpoint neighborhood often, but if I were I would definitely check it out. Or you can order a chicken salad & bacon triple decker with disco fries, tell 'em Honky sent you, though that will probably not get you anything.
Also starring Paul Giamatti (last seen in "Jungle Cruise"), Sally Hawkins (last seen in "Wonka"), Amy Landecker (last seen in "I Love My Dad"), Peter Hermann (last seen in "Swimfan"), Emory Cohen (last seen in "Blue Bayou"), Halley Feiffer (last seen in "Margot at the Wedding"), Colman Domingo (last heard in "Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken"), Tatyana Richaud, Adam Phillips, Michael Drayer (last seen in "Blonde"), Nikki M. James (last seen in "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them"), Gordon Joseph Weiss (last seen in "Reversal of Fortune"), Curtiss Cook (last seen in "West Side Story" (2021)), Darren Goldstein (last seen in "The Girl on the Train"), Rob Munk, Morgan Spector (last seen in "Chuck"), Desmin Borges (last seen in "Hangdog"), Gracie Lopez, Liza Colon-Zayas (last seen in "IF"), Vincent D'Arbouze, Pamela Stewart (last seen in "Hustlers"), Lucy Taylor (last seen in "Senior Year"), Gregory Perri (last seen in "Not Fade Away"), Amanda Warren (last seen in "The Wizard of Lies"), Verna O. Hobson, Elli (last seen in "The International"), Bonnie Rose (last seen in "Night Falls on Manhattan"), Luke Tomalin Sherman
RATING: 6 out of 10 sad inflatable character decorations
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