Amy Adams Is a Better Christmas Gift-Giver, Husband Darren Le Gallo Admits — but He's Improving

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Darren Le Gallo concedes that wife Amy Adams is the better gift-giver each Christmas — but he's improving.

"I try," he tells PEOPLE with a laugh. "I think I've gotten a little bit better through the years, but my wife is really good at that."

Le Gallo, an artist, makes his directorial debut with the new dramedy Sam & Kate, which he also wrote. An executive producer on the film, Adams, also 48, encouraged him to make the project.

Some seven years ago, "I had a different project that I was trying to get off the ground and, honestly, it was my wife that was like, 'You need to write your next thing,' " recalls Le Gallo. "So I had started to assemble the characters and such for this, some of it being lifted from my childhood growing up in the Bible Belt in Texas. Over time it started to come together."

"My wife's support has meant everything to me throughout our relationship," he adds. "She has really good instincts. Our partner's support means a lot to us."

Sam & Kate is "definitely personal" to Le Gallo, though he clarifies it is "not an autobiographical by any stretch."

RELATED: Amy Adams Jokes Daughter Aviana, 10, Quit Ballet After She Told Her She Had 'Beautiful Feet'

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The titular romantic leads (played by Jake Hoffman and Schuyler Fisk, who co-star with their respective real-life parents Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek) don't look entirely unlike Le Gallo and Adams, which he acknowledges as unintentional and "just kind of happened that way." He adds that some scenes are based on his own romance with the Enchanted actress.

"There are a couple of moments in there — I won't state which ones — that were definitely lifted truths from life," says Le Gallo, who married Adams in 2015 after getting engaged back in 2008.

Sam & Kate is about an aspiring artist named Sam who returns to his small-town home to look after his ailing father Bill. Soon, he falls for a local bookshop owner, Kate, whose mother Tina simultaneously becomes a late-in-life romantic interest for Bill. There's more to the drama as the characters learn about each other's complicated pasts.

Le Gallo says inspirations for the story and themes stemmed from conversations he had with his daughter Aviana about life and death. (The pre-teen even has a cameo in the movie as a young dancer in a church scene.)

Amy Graves/Getty Amy Adams, Darren Le Gallo and daughter Aviana in January 2020

"Once I had my daughter 12 years ago I started thinking about parental family dynamics a bit more. Then as she got older, when she became aware of passing and death, I started having these conversations," he says. "We would sit out in nature and we would talk about trees and about the cycle of things. We would relate it back to our surroundings and how it's part of the whole cycle of life and earth."

"I was trying to ease into it a bit. She's 12 now, so she's smarter than me," Le Gallo adds with a laugh.

Much of Sam & Kate is set during Christmastime, a holiday Le Gallo says is "one of my favorites" because it means uninterrupted quality time with Adams and Aviana.

Some of their seasonal traditions? "We go see the zoo lights. We've done that more than once. That's always fun. It's a good time. But those things shift as she's getting older. ... I think just getting time without distractions with my family is what's nice."

He hopes the film is a reminder to audiences that life is short and to make the most of limited time with loved ones.

"We don't know what tomorrow will hold — we don't even know what this evening holds," says Le Gallo. "Knowing that our time is finite, just looking to those who we care about or love in on our lives and let them know how special they are to us. I hope that people, after watching, can feel that and be like, 'I want to call my dad' or 'I want go tell my wife what she means to me.' I think that would be a win."

Sam & Kate is in select theaters now and available on demand and digital Nov. 18.