The Night Before

Friends since high school, thirty-four year olds Ethan Miller, Isaac Greenberg and Chris Roberts have a had a blow out of a night every Christmas Eve for the last fourteen years, the tradition, which includes set things on the to do list, having started in Isaac and Chris coming to needy Ethan's aid in he just having lost his parents. For the last half of those Christmas Eves when they first found out about it, they have wanted to attend the highly secretive and exclusive Nutcracker Ball, they so far unsuccessful in locating it. They have decided due to changes in their lives that this will be their last Christmas Eve as a blowout night, Isaac and his wife Betsy expecting their first child, while Chris, an NFL player, is having a breakthrough season, this the first year he having some level of celebrity and the perks that go along with it. The problem for Ethan, a so-called musician, is that his life has stalled, albeit largely on his own lack of initiative and thus feels he needs his friends more than ever. What they hope will be the last epic blowout takes on greater proportions when Ethan locates, i.e. steals three invitations to the Nutcracker Ball, those invitations just the first of many steps to gain entrance. As they get sidetracked this night by individual issues in their respective lives, they may come to some realizations about those lives and their chosen paths, Ethan's which includes running into Diana, the one that he let get away.