Why You Missed It
You may have caught White Reindeer almost exactly a year ago at a Burlington Film Society screening. If not, now you can break out the curdled eggnog and watch the 2013 flick on Netflix or Amazon Instant.

Should You Keep Missing It?
My 20-point, highly scientific scale for the assessment of indie films:

1-4 points: Does it look pretty?
1/4. Like Happy Christmas, which I watched last week, White Reindeer is essentially a mumblecore film. (Joe Swanberg, director of HC, even shows up playing half of a swinger couple to whom Suzanne sells a house.) Unlike the much artier Morvern Callar, it doesn't have striking images to relieve the gloom of Suzanne's suburban holiday kitsch.

1-4 points: Does anything happen?
2/4. Movies about grief are tough on the audience, because there's nothing dramatic about how most people process it. Take the scene where Suzanne goes on an online shopping spree and fixates on a model in a red sweater as an image of the person she'd like to be right now. A plausible way of coping, but not terribly interesting to watch.

More promisingly, Suzanne finds out her husband had a secret life involving a stripper (Laura Lemar-Goldsborough) and seeks out the younger woman. That's the most sustained and compelling plotline, yet the movie has a shambling, episodic quality that keeps us from caring too much about the outcome of this or any particular situation. I'll admit it: My attention wandered.

1-4 points: Does what happens make sense?
4/4. White Reindeer's saving grace is that, yes, most of it does. The film's first few scenes suggest that we're in for an over-the-top black comedy. So it's a surprise to find that Clark treats his characters like people, not stereotypes, and avoids spinning off the plot in madcap, hyperreal directions. Take away the Christmas hook and it's a believable movie about mourning, for better or worse.

1-4 points: Do the characters seem like real people? Failing that, do they look pretty?
4/4. Hollyman deserves the lion's share of the credit for making White Reindeer watchable. Recently seen in Vermont-raised Zachary Donohue's horror flick The Den, she has a bristling, terrier-alert energy that seems perfectly suited to comedy, yet she never resorts to mugging. The instant we see Suzanne, we know she needs to feel in control, and we continue to believe in her as she falls apart and cuts loose.

Despite the cartoonish beginning, Clark's script generally eschews broad strokes. The stripper isn't a typical movie stripper, and even the swingers next door (everybody's favorite comic device, not) turn out to have a bit of depth.

1-4 points: Does the movie give us a reason to care about anything happening on screen?
2/4. White Reindeer has good points to make about secular Christmas love and the role it plays in people's lives, but it spells them out for us. It also uses an all-too-familiar device to bring Suzanne to the requisite teeny-tiny final epiphany. I respected the movie, but it never surprised me the way Morvern Callar did.

Verdict: 13/20. While not memorable enough to go on my all-time list of Twisted Christmas Flicks, White Reindeer is worth a watch for the novelty of its premise and Hollyman's performance. Break out the eggnog and burn the yule log!

This Week in Theaters
Reese Witherspoon goes Wild, at the Roxy and Essex.

The new version of Annie is set in the present-day world of foster kids (presumably annoyingly perky ones who like to burst into song). There's a third Night at the Museum flick, featuring Robin Williams' last performance. Oh, and Peter Jackson brings us about three more hours of hobbits, dwarfs, sexy elves, flaming swords and the like.

This Week in Your Living Room
Magic in the Moonlight, The Maze Runner, The Skeleton Twins, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, This Is Where I Leave You.