From left to right: Guillaume Canet as the French Lieutenant, Daniel Brühl as the German Lieutenant and Alex Ferns as the Scottish Lieutenant.

Since this movie involves actors from 3 countries, here's a break-down of the main cast (taken from IMDB.com)

French:
Guillaume Canet.... Lieutenant Audebert
Dany Boon.... Ponchel

German:
Daniel Brühl .... Lieutenant Horstmayer
Benno Fürmann .... Nikolaus Sprink
Diane Kruger .... Anna Sörensen

Scottish:
Alex Ferns .... Lieutenant Gordon
Gary Lewis .... Palmer

I had mixed feelings about this movie. In fact, I expected to leave the movie in tears from being emotionally touched. But I didn't, and I wondered why because I honestly loved this movie. Upon reflection, I think I've found out the reason - the portrayal of the Christmas Truce itself was deeply moving and was definitely one of those things that gave u a feel-good experience. Yet at the end of the day, hopes for mankind shatters once again as ultimately, evil prevails and the war continues. How can I be moved to tears?

One thing's for sure though - I hope everyone watches this movie. It forces u to take a glimpse into the raw truth about wars, that aside from all the brutality and bloodshed and statistics and figures, every single soldier has a story of his own, and that every single one of them yearns for peace and to go home.

The Christmas Truce occured in 1914, and was the first Christmas where these troops had to spend away from their homelands to fight in the trenches in no-man's land. However, the strong yearning for the past where Christmas was spent in peace for each regiment led to the reluctance on all sides to take offensive against one another, though still wary of each others' prescence in the neighbouring trenches. Yet, as portrayed in the movie, because of the closeness of the trenches, it soon became apparent that in fact each country celebrated Christmas in almost the same manner, with the same songs and cheers just that in different languages. In the movie, it started with the German soldier who was singing a Christmas song for his troops on Christmas eve. Upon hearing the singing, the Scottish regiment, armed with their bagpipes, started playing the tune to the song. And then it all began, after which the German, French and Scottish troops shared with one another drinks, chocolates, cigarrettes, photos of their wives and stories about their families and lives back in their own countries. As the fraternalization deepened, they even exchanged addresses, promising to pay a visit once the war was over. So strong was the simple wish for peace and harmony.

There were many amusing moments. However, the best was actually later in the movie (Christmas or Boxing day? I can't remember) when they not only refused to open fire at one another, they even protected one another from shelling from their respective militaries. Many other moments included an impromptu mass which the Scottish pastor (as a medic in the frontline) where everyone, even non-Christians, participated. Also memorable was when the German Lieutenant actually related his pleasant experience in France where he and his French-speaking wife had their honeymoon at.

Sounds incredulous, and of course I don't know how accurate the portrayal was. Yet the occurance of the Christmas is as real as it can get. And the fact that it happened simultaneously and spontaneous on various fronts on the same Christmas eve reminds us that we are, soldiers and all, are after all only human.

While I was watching this, a thought crossed my mind (and the minds of many others too, as I would later find out from the reviews at IMDB.com) - what if the Christmas truce had lasted? What if it successfully brought an end to the war? How wonderful would that be

Unfortunately, of course, we all know that that never happened. Just, what if.

As european-film.net rightly puts it, the screenplay is deceptively simple. Indeed, I left the movie commenting that it didn't seem to have lasted very long, only to realize later that it had in fact clocked 2 whole hours. It is packed with messages of the universality of humanity and inherent wish for peace and harmony. A very interesting aspect was how the director brought out the fact that while Christianty is used to bring solace to the troops during the truce, it is used later in the movie to preach the "unhuman-ness" of the enemy, an eerie reminder of current events. However, all these left less time for the development of the main characters, which perhaps was one of the main reason why I felt the movie didn't feel like 2-hours long. This is probably one major flaw of the movie.

Despite that, I have to say that the European cast brought in top-notch performances, with each speaking in their native languages, except during the interactions. Guillaume Canet as the French Lieutenant Audebert caught my eye as he is introduced in the 1st scene, pacing around his shelter nervously amidst the heavy shelling outside, vomitting due to the anxiety at one point, before going out to command his troops in the attack on the Germans. One important couple was famous tenor Nikolaus Sprink (Benno Fürmann), who had been drafted into the army and his girlfriend, an opera singer (Diane Kruger). It was their singing for their comrades on Christmas eve that sparked off the truce. Daniel Bruhl whom I was all praises for in Good Bye Lenin! looked too young to play the German commanding officer despite his bearded look, but nevertheless portrayed the hardened, patriotic Lieutenant appropriately, even poignantly as later he was in fact often the one who initiated help to the French and Scottish on several occassions, suggesting that he probably wished for peace and harmony as much as his troops did. And goodness, this German actor is not only multilingual in German, Spanish and English, he also speaks decent French! On the Scottish side, Gary Lewis as the soft-spoken, quiet and sensitive pastor who volunteered as a medic shone in his role.

Remember in my previous post, where one of my new year resolutions was "to save some hope for mankind"? This is certainly one of those movies that reminds u to do just that. This movie may be lacking in some areas, like the lack of characterizations, but as a story about the victory of human sentiment, it stands out.

I can't stress this enough - I wish everyone would watch this movie. Save some hope for mankind.


Additional information:

I previously posted an article about the Christmas Truce as published on the Washington Post last year. Recommended read for those who want to know more about this interesting yet significant fragment of history: Remembering a Victory for Human Kindness.

Webpage at IMDB.com

Official website