IN THE TRENCHES: Guillaume Canet in Joyeux Noël.

From here, Joyeux Noël, Christian Carion's Oscar-nominated film, opens wide, the camera flying over gorgeous landscapes en route to a rural church in Scotland. It's 1914, and two brothers are celebrating the fact that finally, war has been declared. "At last," says Jonathan (Steven Robertson), rushing out the door to spread the news, "Something has happened in our lives!"

He has no idea, of course, how devastating this something will be. But the camera lingers on the face of their parish priest, Palmer (Gary Lewis), who is plainly horrified. He ends up going to the front as a stretcher-bearer in order to provide spiritual comfort for the young men of his parish. Their shifting perspectives when they reach the front is indicated by the boys' faces becoming even paler and Palmer's efforts to maintain "order" premised on Catholic rituals marking death.

Around Christmastime (the first of WWI), they're in a trench near a French unit, headed by Lieutenant Audebert (Guillaume Canet), who prefers to listen to the nostalgic tales of his orderly Ponchel (Dany Boon) rather than leading his men into battle. The film cuts between the Scottish and French units, and a third unit, German, which occupies an opposing trench across a patch of land within hearing distance. Here the fierce young commander, Horstmayer (Daniel Bruhl), disdains the "artist" among his otherwise solidly working class troops, an opera singer named Sprink (Benno Furrman) who's introduced on a soundstage with his life and professional partner, the Danish-born Anna (Diane Kruger), as they learn he's been called up to fight.

Still, they believe, like most everyone else, that the war will soon be over. Desperate to see her man and privileged by her stardom, Anna arranges to bring Sprink to occupied France for a holiday concert, then accompanies him to the front, where she greets gaping-mouthed troops. Here, on Christmas Eve, with lighted trees sent up from headquarters, Sprink is overcome with sentiment, and begins singing "Silent Night" for his men, and, given their close spacing, the French and Scots as well (the Scots have their bagpipes along, and so provide accompaniment). Before they all quite know what's happened, they call a ceasefire for the night, share prayer, wine, chocolate, a bit of soccer and a song by Anna (her voice by Natalie Dessay).

The movie's hardly subtle when it comes to debunking the "romance" of war: When the troops and officers face punishment from their superiors for such fraternization, the men write letters in protest against the war, to the "bastards, sitting pretty, who sent us here to slug it out." The singing together is very pretty, though certainly few war zones now would allow for such shared cultural or religious touchstones. Pressing the broad, rather obvious point—war is absurd, politically motivated—Joyeux Noël overlooks complications to achieve another sort of romance.

Joyeux Noël Directed by Christian Carion A Sony Pictures Classics release, Opens Friday at Ritz Bourse