Who's in It: Diane Kruger, Bruno Furmann, Guillaume Canet
The Basics: Again with the "based on a true story" stuff. And yeah, this event — World War I soldiers calling a temporary Christmas Eve of 1914 truce — really did happen. But I betcha everything else here is fiction.
What's the Deal? Christmas movies are for all year round. This is a fact. Ever seen the super-old movie Auntie Mame? They had Christmas in that one whenever they wanted it. So the fact that this movie is getting a theatrical release in March and probably a DVD release in some other non-X-mas month does not mean you should ignore it. Peace on Earth is good all the time.
Shut Up With the Holiday Cheer and Tell Us Whether It Sucks or Not: It does not. In fact, it's pretty good in that low-key, art-house, we're-all-brothers-under-the-skin-and-war-is-bad kind of way. It earns its heart-tuggin' moments.
Parallels to Actual Modern Events: It's about young men in a situation they didn't ask for who break rank and do what they want for a short time, refusing to go with the flow of death. Kind of like U.S. grunts who write cranky war blogs or mouth off in brazen documentaries like Occupation: Dreamland, a movie you really should watch.
See Also: 1992's A Midnight Clear, which is set during WWII but tells a similar story, and 1969's Oh! What a Lovely War.