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Merry Christmas

EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Merry Christmas reviews
70
8.7 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 13 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign  |  War

Written by: Christian Carion

Directed by: Christian Carion

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 3, 2006
DVD: November 14, 2006

Running Time: 116 minutes, Color

Origin: France / Germany / UK / Belgium / Romania

Language(s): French / German (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: R for some war violence and brief sexuality

Starring Diane Kruger, Benno Fürmann, Guillaume Canet, Dany Boon, Gary Lewis, Daniel Brühl, Alex Ferns, and Steven Robertson

This movie is inspired by a true story, which occurred in the trenches of the World War I battlefield on Christmas Eve in 1914. When war breaks out in the lull of summer 1914, it surprises and pulls millions of men in its wake. Christmas arrives, with its snow and multitude of family and army presents. But the surprise won't come from inside the generous parcels which lie in the French, Scottish, and German trenches. That night, a momentous event will turn the destinies of four characters: an Anglican priest, a French lieutenant, an exceptional German tenor and the one he loves, a soprano and singing partner. During this Christmas Eve, the unthinkable happens: soldiers come out of their trenches, leaving their rifles behind to shake hands with the enemy. (Sony Pictures Classics)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

With a cast of Scottish, German and French actors all speaking their own language, writer-director Christian Carion has fashioned a deeply moving and uplifting piece.

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90

Variety Lisa Nesselson

A period drama marbled with humor, bold gestures and bittersweet consequences.

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88

USA Today Claudia Puig

Joyeux Noël is gritty and disturbing with its extended scenes of war and destruction. It also is emotional, even a touch sentimental.

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88

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Though it's not the great film "Grand Illusion" is, and though it may strike some as a little schmaltzy, it still has some of that earlier film's deep feeling and empathy for soldiers trapped in the jaws of war and for the joys of Christmas--for believers and non-believers alike.

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80

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

But except for a few missteps, the movie is so beautifully and sensitively rendered in its particulars, in its characterizations of soldiers and officers, and in its dramatization of a nearly miraculous event, that the result is an affecting piece of cinema.

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80

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's a profoundly moving story of -- yes! -- the human spirit rising above horrible circumstances, and simultaneously a work of nostalgia for the gentlemen's war that marked the end, or the beginning of the end, of Christian Europe's world domination.

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78

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

The movie isn't perfect – Spielberg-slick, its power is sometimes dampened by melodrama that overstates its message – but it is compelling and thought-provoking and topical as hell.

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75

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Carion's cri de coeur is at once a historical chronicle, an ode to the European Community, and a not-so-veiled critique of a 21st-century war.

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75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The overall saga is moving, the performances are first-rate, the production values (which do not rely on the usual cartoonish CGI effects) are strong, and Carion captures the special insanity of stalemated trench warfare with an unusual horrific flair.

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75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It makes for a fascinating exploration of the human experience.

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75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

For a few fleeting hours, they unlearned those lessons of childhood, laying down their arms to pick up their common humanity.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Its sentimentality is muted by the thought that this moment of peace actually did take place, among men who were punished for it, and who mostly died soon enough afterward.

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75

New York Post Kyle Smith

An intense but fairly brief battle scene near the start reminds us of the unique horrors of this war. But the hokey music played over it hints that the film is going to try too hard to touch us. And it soon does.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It takes an extraordinary film on the order of Joyeux Noel to make it all suddenly vital, immediate and human.

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75

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

If audiences are hesitant to believe that the fraternization in this film really happened, it will be because of the storytelling, not the story.

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70

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Joyeux Noël finishes up as no more than a garden-variety tearjerker, neatly packaged for Oscar candidacy. It's not hard to see why the French chose this inoffensive weepie as their nominee for best foreign-language film, when they might have had Jacques Audiard's far superior, if more difficult, "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" or Arnaud Desplechin's "Kings & Queen."

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70

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

The uncomplicated humanism of Joyeux Noël, with its Christmas message of peace, feels at once irrefutable and refreshing.

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70

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Carion is no Jean Renoir, but he does strike an appealingly low key of tender, faintly goofy affinity between the combatants.

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70

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Based on a true story, the movie was nominated for an Oscar as best foreign film; some might castigate its unabashed sentimentality, but I found myself moved, especially when I recalled that this was supposedly the war to end all wars.

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67

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Though a painless time-passer, Joyeux Noël ultimately contributes little to the venerable anti-war genre beyond its curious message that to some degree, war is hell because it prevents soldiers from making really neat friends and pen-pals from different counties.

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67

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Merry Christmas is long and ponderous, but for a few moments, its heavy hand is refreshingly light and agile, and you feel something other than frustration.

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63

Premiere Kelly Borgeson

Joyeux Noel is no gritty war film; this is more of a Christmas miracle movie, full of melodrama. Carion juggles a large, multicultural cast, and few of the characters stand out; most are there to represent the types who pop up in your standard war-movie battalions.

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60

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The first two-thirds of Joyeux Noel are strangely inert, but the film ends with a moving and surprisingly sophisticated meditation on the definition of moral duty.

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50

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

You can't go wrong with an uplifting, anti-war story like this, but director Christian Carion trowels on the schmaltz, and the movie's emphasis on Christian values actually seems to spell doom for solving today's conflicts with the Middle East.

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50

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It's a heart-warmer, a well-meaning movie that sets out to wring a modern message (and preferably some tears) from a famous but largely forgotten moment in history.

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50

The New York Times Stephen Holden

If the film's sentiments about the madness of war are impeccably high-minded, why then does Joyeux Noël, an Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film, feel as squishy and vague as a handsome greeting card declaring peace on earth?

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Fill gave it a10:
Those who don't like the film because it's too "contrived and cloying" should go back to commenting on National Lampoon and American Pie fims and let the grown ups talk aboutreal films. Joyeux Noel is fantastic. Christian Carion did his research. He was able to accurately portray a time and place that is difficult for us to understand. He is able to bring out the humanity that exists during a time of war. This is effectively evidenced by the compelling characters that he places before us. Through them we are able to see that the men on both sides were fighting for one thing; the right to go home. A wonderful film. A must see!

Taylor B gave it a10:
I have heard about the actual event, and it was captured just as I thought it might have been. As i said when i finished watching it, "it did a lot to restore my faith in the inherent good of humans" Thank you.

Chris P. gave it a6:
Failed to evoke any empathy towards the characters at all. Since the oppression of war or the characters were not built up enough the whole movie makes you rely on your own knowledge of the war to appreciate the beauty of the event although most people who are going to see it probably know enough about the war and probably even this event in particular.

John P. gave it a9:
An excellent film. Very well done. And for those who believe it's too "over the top" and schmaltzy, read the actual acounts of this extraordinary event. In many instances, the screenwriter dulled the actual history, lest audiences not believe what they're seeing. The story of the Scottish priest, chastised for not using his religion to support war, was for me the backbone of the film. And a frightening reminder of how zealots of all religions can twist scriptures for their own rotten purposes. A film worth seeing.

Ken G gave it a10:
Movie is haunting, sad, poignant, and beautifully done. I didn't find it a bit sappy. I should point out here that although christmas clearly plays a part here, movie doesn't come off as a celebration of christmas, or jesus, or christian values. (and if it had, as a jewish agnostic, I likely would have been turned off) Rather, christmas comes off as the conviant excuse, that the soldiers on both sides could relate to, to stop the insanity. One of the sad parts here is knowing that as haunted and as traumatized as the soldiers on both sides are, this movies takes place in 1914. WW 1 ended in 1918. These soldiers still had almost 4 years of war to go, and many of them would not make it.

Tracy R. gave it a10:
Lots of missing the point here. The movie is about how hard it is to wreak destruction when you don't de-humanize the enemy and the message couldn't be more timely. Nothing schmlatzy at all about that reality. Beautifically acted.

Rob C. gave it a3:
Extraordinarily contrived and cloying, kind of like a Hallmark movie done in a different language. No way should this be a Best Foreign Film nominee.

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