Christmas Again

Crafted with affection and attentive to workaday rhythms, this first feature from writer-director Charles Poekel demonstrates an authentic feel for the neighborhood, where he himself once sold trees.

Delicate and restrained, the film offers the messages of redemption and renewal we so often crave from a Christmas movie without wrapping its themes and characters in tinsel.

"Christmas, Again" captures something ineffably moving about the holiday grind, as depicted in the life of a seasonal Christmas tree seller.

The film amounts to a collection of indelible moments, many of them piercingly lovely and delicate.

The most striking thing about it is its evocation of an extremely specific mood. Once we settle into it, and it happens early, everything else becomes possible.

This is a Christmas movie in which magic exists largely on the periphery, and that is just the right mix of chilly and sweet.

It's interesting to note that Poekel sold Christmas trees for five years to get the money to finance the film.

Christmas, Again becomes the kind of Christmas movie not very common anymore. One lacking in cynicism and irony.

Poekel keeps things natural, letting Noel's sadness slowly permeate the atmosphere along with the scent of pine needles rather than ringing it out at high volume.

A portrait of a decidedly blue Christmas, not a black one.

Plot never totally dominates 'Christmas, Again,' which is largely a collection of moments, all about the grind of living in this particular skin.

A realistic and revealing portrait of a lonely young man selling Christmas trees on a street corner.