SYNOPSIS:

Mike Guerrini maguerrini@msn.com 617-833-7979 SYNOPSIS: THE CHRISTMAS LETTER; A YULETIDE TALE TONY GENTILLI(42) is a desperate man who believes the day is cursed. His daughter Gianna(8) lies in a coma at a New York hospital. The doctors have given her only hours to live,and to top it, off it's Christmas Eve. Exiled elf ALVINIUS(ageless) happens to be in the same hospital when he receives a call from his boss, S ANTA CLAUS. Santa explains that a friend has lost his hope and belief and needs an intervention. He tells Alvinius if he succeeds in making Tony believe, his exile will be over and can come back home. Trying to be discreet ,Alvinius changes into Alvin, a huge, muscular black hospital orderly. In the hospital chapel Alvin meets Tony and tries to convince him about the joys of Christmas. Tony wants no part of it and tells Alvin he has never had an enjoyable Christmas and has never uttered the words “Merry Christmas”. Alvin makes a deal with Tony that he will leave him alone if he can't find at least one happy Christmas memory without complications. Time flashes back to when Tony was a kid. One Christmas, his older brothers, VINNY and ALLEN, open up all his toys and leave him to open socks, underwear, and books . Another Christmas, Tony tries to stop his four year old sister from climbing the tree. The tree falls on top of him ,knocking him out. He spends the entire Christmas in the Emergency Room, much to the chagrin of his dad. Another Christmas, Tony's playing hockey and falls through the ice where he catches pneumonia and spends the entire Christmas break in bed. Tony does come close to admitting he had one decent Christmas but in the long run it didn't turn out that way. While at a winter wonderland amusement park Tony befriends a sickly reindeer named COSMO who has turned up mysteriously. His father makes a deal with the trainer where Tony will take care of Cosmo until he's healthy again. An ecstatic Tony agrees to the deal and throughout the next year the two are inseparable. But joy turns to sadness when Tony has to bring his friend back to the park. Two weeks later he finds out the reindeer went missing and was never found. That Christmas Tony receives a letter from Santa thanking him for taking such good care of Comet's son and that he owes him a favor. Tony's parents, as well as Tony later in life, believe his two ball breaking brothers wrote the letter as a joke. As the years go by, Tony's Christmases become irrelevant until he meets LAURA RICCIO while having a quiet, lonely Christmas Eve dinner at a bar. The two hit it off so well that they spend the night together. Laura leaves to see her parents and leaves Tony her card and number. Tony accidentally throws it in the incinerator. Another lost Christmas for Tony. By chance, eight months later he meets up with Laura and from that day forward they are inseparable, except for on Christmas when she returns to her parents, and Tony, now a professor and author, travels the states trying to push his books. Laura and Tony end up marrying and having three children. Now, his Christmases have turned insane as he tries to travel with his family over the holidays. Tony admits Christmas has now turned into one exhausting headache. This Christmas has turned downright tragic. While visiting his family, Gianna becomes violently ill. They rush her to the hospital where doctors and specialists diagnose her with Dengue Fever and give her a few short days to live. Christmas has become a curse for Tony. Alvin, through the help of modern technology, reminds Tony of the letter. Tony dismisses it but Alvin explains to Tony that he's run out of options and maybe a little faith will help lend a hand. Tony hurries back home, retrieves the letter and brings it back to the hospital where he sits and waits for a miracle. Nothing happens. Tony is woken by a smiling Alvin and a thirsty Gianna, who's fever has broken. Tony runs and gets the NURSE. She tells him Gianna's vital signs are fine and can't explain what has happened. Tony runs through the hospital looking for Alvin. He finds him on the rooftop as Alvin's size 15 footprints have shrunk to size 3. He turns a corner and to his astonishment, a sleigh sits on the snow covered roof. Tony joyfully greets SANTA and thanks him. He looks over to find Cosmo leading the sleigh. The two reunite. A tearful but happy Tony says good bye to Alvinius, who now is the size of an elf. The sleigh flies off the rooftop and into the night where Tony joyously celebrates. He finds a letter from Alvin and screams, I do Believe! I do Believe! Tony returns to the hospital room where Gianna sits with her mother, brothers, and grandparents. Tony hugs his family and for the first time in his life, shouts, “Merry Christmas”. THE END