This indie gem from 2014 comes to UK cinemas for the first time, and it’s an example of elite Holiday season cinema.
Hangdog Noel (Kentucker Audley), in his woolen beanie and plaid workshirt, works as a house-maker most of the year round, but he picks up a few extra bucks during the festive period by selling Christmas trees in a lay-by. And to mix things up a little – and to perhaps guarantee a more vibrant variety of clientele – he works the night shift. It’s a job he executes with almost pathological diligence, using tried-and-tested sales patter with potential punters while also cajoling his more slacker-inclined colleagues to take a little more pride in the business – if people see pines on the ground they’ll think the trees are dead, even though they are dead!
There’s an Edward Hopper-like melancholy to writer/director Charles Poekel’s forlorn nightbirds, as they carry out this vital sales task while projecting subtle thoughts of sunnier, more lively opportunities elsewhere. Noel is actually silently pining for an ex-girlfriend with whom he worked the previous year and has returned out of a sense of duty to what is now a phantom relationship. He’s taken the job as a way to be alone with his thoughts and take in the cool New York suburban air.
The plot kicks in when Noel attends a minor commotion and finds a transient rifling through a woman’s belongings as she sits out cold on a bench, shoeless and with chewing gum in her hair. He comes to her aid, takes her to his little trailer and allows her to rest up. Yet he’s clocked off before she can thank him. The woman’s name is Lydia (Hannah Gross), and she comes, explaining that she’d just had a little too much to drink. Later on, a man comes shopping for a Christmas tree and has some weird energy about him – turns out his Lydia’s jealous boyfriend.
It’s a tender and warm film about missed connections and ships that, for whatever reason, end up passing in the night. Audley is supremely lovable as our hero who’s putting a brave face on his dejection, while Gross makes for a wonderful foil in the woman who’s probably got too much of her own shit going on for any kind of relationship to take off. The climactic sequence where the pair make a series of deliveries to members of the local community presents the best of Poekel’s eye for an empathetic brand of realism, and it really captures why Christmas trees are not just a seasonal emblem, but are vital for our collective mental health.
The film originally premiered in 2014, and makes its debut in UK screens this Christmas. Not sure what the reasons for the delay was, but we can say it was definitely worth the wait.