For Actor Eric Close, 'All is Merry and Bright' Movie a Madcap Slice of Life

Eric Close, Emily Rose in 'All is Merry and Bright' | Photo image courtesy SCDG Edify Productions
The frost has hardly settled on the pumpkins, yet we have already shifted into full Christmas-mode! Whether it be setting up the Christmas tree, baking holiday treats for friends, or just soaking in the true meaning for the season, this time of year conjures up feelings of joy and … chaos!

Even with the best of intentions, Christmas can be a time of tremendous anxiety, frustration, and disappointment. This mainly holds true due to our desire to provide our families with the perfect Christmas. Sadly, brightly colored baubles and beads often get lost in translation and the lack of time.

In a new movie opening in theaters this weekend called All is Merry and Bright, the Tannen family learns that being surrounded by your loved ones is truly what makes Christmas special … even when nothing goes as planned. In fact, when extended family arrives early to celebrate or a mischievous dog nearly ruins everything, this tale around the Tannenbaum serves as a heartwarming reminder of the everlasting strength of faith, family, and not settling for second best.

All is Merry and Bright is directed by Cory Edwards and stars Emily Rose (The Shift), Eric Close (Average Joe, The Mulligan), Sally Struthers (A Man on the Inside, All in the Family), as well as John O’Hurley (Seinfeld).

I recently sat down with Eric Close to discuss the enduring strength of faith and family during the holiday season, his favorite part of the Christmas season, and why forgiveness and compassion is so critically important this time of year.

For every actor, there always seems to be a moment where you say to yourself, “I have to be a part of this movie! It is non-negotiable!” For All is Merry and Bright what was that moment for you?

It's definitely a story of hope, faith, and love. All those elements are great. It was a lot of fun. My character gets to be a goofball, and I thoroughly enjoy getting a chance to do that. My kids will tell you I'm a goofball, so any chance I get to do that on screen, that's fun. And I just love the story. I loved how they treated the faith element of the story. It's not really in your face. It's just done in a very beautiful and organic way. It’s very real and I love that. This family is a wonderful family. They've got their flaws, and obviously chaos ensues around the holidays when everybody converges, all the immediate family and then the extended family shows up. But overall, I just really enjoyed the overall story. I liked not only the journey that my character took, but really the central character of Jessica, who's played by Emily Rose. She plays my wife. She's fantastic in the film, and she carries the movie.

Generally speaking, are you a Christmas person? And if so, what is your favorite part of the Christmas season?

First of all, I love cold weather. Anybody will tell you; I'm not a big fan of hot weather unless I'm in the Caribbean and chilling on a beach or something. It doesn't happen very often. But I just love the snow and the cold, and obviously I love the message of Christmas. It's also a time across the land, around the world, for people to come together to just settle down, take a break, and be together as family. This whole idea of giving gifts is born out of loving other people and you want to share gifts with them. And it really comes from the gift of Jesus Christ and the gift He gave us of eternal life.

It all just pours out from there. But for me, I love all the food that we make, the big meals and sitting around a table. We always have great conversations that come up. We try to follow tradition with my kids. We always kind of go around the table and we have this little box of questions, life questions, that you can pull out. It's fun for the kids to hear our stories and we get to hear their ideas of what they think about it. So, it's just a great time to be there and especially around this holiday season as my wife and I are going to do a road trip and to see people. I'm excited.

For me this movie is all about trying to have the perfect Christmas for your family. But then, everything seems to fall apart. It’s pure craziness. Have you ever experienced a Christmas like this in your personal experience?

Many. I'm not going to give you too many details, but I would just say yes, there's always something. Everybody comes with the best intentions, but we also bring all of our baggage and stuff. And so, there's been times where people have had disagreements, or the dish that you're making for dessert burns or it collapses. Somebody didn't get the present that they wanted or somebody else got the present that you wanted. There's always those kinds of things, but I will honestly say there's never been a disaster at Christmas for me, thankfully.

We make all these plans, and we want it to be perfect, whatever that means in the sense of what's a perfect Christmas. One of the great messages of this movie, and a good life lesson, is that we far too often try to control everything. And there's so many things that are out of our control. Sometimes, I think it's really important just to hold onto certain things loosely and to kind of roll the roll with whatever comes. It's more about attitude and gratitude than it is about making sure everything goes perfectly. You can find joy in the unpredictability of things not going exactly how you planned and wanted to control. This movie talks about that because you can really burn yourself out.

Digging a little deeper, this film is about more than Christmas—it’s about the enduring strength of family and faith. How did those themes resonate with you personally?

It has to transcend a holiday season with faith, family, and love. It's a lifelong journey. Not just reserved for the holidays if you will. For this particular family, the Tannen family, for the most part things are great. My character, Paul, ends up having some setbacks at work right before the holidays that a lot of people can relate to. Jessica, my wife in the movie, she's crippled from a childhood accident and dealing with advancing arthritis, which makes life more and more difficult for her. She's an overachiever and is trying to make up for her handicaps. It takes away from family time with the kids and they're feeling it.

So, while this family really loves each other, and they love being together, they're dealing with real-life things and their faith in God. And just having hope and understanding, that's part of life. It helps them grow as a family. And it certainly helps Jessica grow. They all learn something, which I love about this movie. Everybody kind of goes through their own little journey in this film. In the end, it brings them even closer together than they already are.

All is Merry and Bright is very much about forgiveness and togetherness. Why are these concepts so critically important in the world we are living in right now?

It's a lot easier to go that route than the opposite. I've heard this saying, it's easier to be kind than it is to be a jerk. It takes a lot of effort to not be kind to somebody. We’ve seen this over and over. It's tried and true. If you are kind to someone and you show love to someone, it just changes the whole atmosphere. I’ll give you a simple example. You pull into a parking lot, and you and another person are going for the same spot and the other person snags. If you get really upset with the person, it can escalate into something.

But if you go the other route and you say you are sorry about that and you didn't mean to cut them off and you can go ahead and take the spot or whatever. Suddenly the whole dynamic changes.

After people have had a chance to see All is Merry and Bright, what would you like to see audiences take away from the viewing experience? What is your greatest hope for the film?

I hope that they're filled with joy. And I hope it also gives them a sense of hope. The other thing I hope is that they're filled with laughter. There are a bunch of fun moments in it. And there's some good lessons to learn. There are some messages at the end of the movie that are so special. This is one of the reasons I love It's a Wonderful Life. It's my favorite movie because the message just resonates year after year. That one, you do matter. Every single person matters to God. You are important. And what you do for a living doesn't define you. The fact that the creator of the universe wants to have a relationship with you and loves you is huge.

That is so important. And also, that there are things that are out of our control, and we just burn ourselves out when we're trying so hard to control certain things. And when you're able to surrender, trust, and have faith, it makes such a huge difference. I hope that people walk away with that as well. That they can just breathe a little bit after this movie and really just take the time to enjoy the holidays and enjoy the people that they're with. I hope people realize what a privilege it is to be able to go and see a movie. A lot of people aren't able to do that. I just hope they really feel good.

WATCH A TRAILER FOR ALL IS MERRY AND BRIGHT: