To my knowledge, there has never been a story that better shows how powerful the holiday in and of itself is than Joyeux Noël.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 3, 2024

[Merry Christmas] underlines all that unites us at a time when all seems to separate us.

| Apr 26, 2019

Unfolding slowly, then building in momentum like the hymns themselves, this entire sequence is tremendously affecting.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 14, 2014

A vivid, quietly powerful recreation of a truly extraordinary moment in history: just not an overwhelmingly moving one.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 14, 2014

It isn't exactly All Quiet on the Western Front or Oh! What a Lovely War. What it lacks is proper finesse.

| Dec 14, 2014

It is such a wonderful story and I think it's a rather prosaic treatment that it's been given.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 14, 2014

It's a film with great humanism and if it's a little light on true drama or even realism it's intentions are honourable.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 14, 2014

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.

| Dec 14, 2014

The horror of the war, and the startling dignity of these mud-spattered soldiers, will doubtless thaw stony hearts. But the drama is as conventional as a ham sandwich.

| Dec 14, 2014

Without an interesting point of view attached but tons of nobility to go around, it's not hard to be left with the feeling these soldiers stopped shooting at each other because, well, "Silent Night" is such an excellent song.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 14, 2014

Christian Carion's account of the famous Christmas Truce of 1914 is sentimentalized, but smooth, with the elegant restraint typical of the most romantic French films.

| Dec 14, 2014

You can't watch this film without thinking about modern wars and about how much easier it is to demonize a foe when language and customs are more at odds.

| Dec 14, 2014

For all their friendship and yuletide charity, the men must return to battle, and the miracle of Christmas does little to alter the course of war. By the end of it, they must decide if they've witnessed their own grand illusion.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 14, 2014

Joyeux Noel is a fascinating piece of work that manages to be moving without becoming maudlin.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 14, 2014

A compelling war-what-is-it-good-for? film, a simple, empathetic story based on a real event.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 14, 2014

Not quite the searing tale about the tragedy of war that it could have been.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 14, 2014

The scenes portray a sense of innocence made all the more affecting by the fact that we know the war went on for years afterward, and a good (and true) example of why we'd fight a lot fewer wars if regular people made those decisions.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 14, 2014

It is strongly and competently told, and the poignancy of warriors stricken by the sound of Stille Nacht floating across the trenches still has the power to move.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 9, 2013

Insipid manipulation masquerading as (and giving a bad name to) humanism

| Aug 30, 2009

Despite maudlin moments, however, it musters its fair share of irony. The film may be a Euro pudding, but it's tastier than most.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 23, 2009