Christmas Drama

Mom announces she's got cancer and the whole family gathers by her side at Christmastime. Four Christmases this is not (hallelujah!), but if you’re expecting a shameless tearjerker of the Stepmom/Family Stone variety, you won’t get that either from Arnaud Desplechin's moving and darkly hilarious film A Christmas Tale (on DVD and Blu-ray today) which, like most foreign films, got only a tiny release in theaters a year ago.

The illness of matriarch Junon (Catherine Deneuve) puts the story in motion, but the meat of the film deals with troubled family relationships, particularly among her children: unhappy playwright Elizabeth (Anne Consigny), boyishly uncomplicated Ivan (Melvil Poupaud, who played a terminally-ill gay man in Time to Leave) and bad-seed Henri (Quantum of Solace’s Mathieu Amalric). The latter's breezy mutual antipathy with his mother provides some of the film's richest — and ouchiest — laughs. Those French know how to fight!

Desplechin creates such vividly human characters that you’ll find yourself switching allegiances while watching and even after it’s over. The Criterion Collection release includes a terrific essay by critic Phillip Lopate as well as a short film by Desplechin and a revelatory interview with the director, Deneuve and Amalric. A tasty mix of Yuletide cheer, literary allusions, fourth-wall violations, deadpan wit and character study, A Christmas Tale transcends the usual holiday-movie fare.


A Christmas Tale is available today on DVD and Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.