Director: Chazz Palminteri
Stars: Susan Sarandon, Paul Walker, Penelope Cruz, Alan Arkin, Robin Williams, Marcus Thomas
It’s Christmas Eve, and not everyone is feeling the Christmas spirit. Rose (Sarandon) tends to her ill mother and ignores the invitation to spend the holidays with her ex husband and his new wife. Nina (Cruz) and Mike (Walker) are looking forward to getting married, until his jealousy gets in the way of his happiness, and then Mike is harassed by a man (Arkin) who claims that Mike is a reincarnation of his ex-wife. Then Jules (Calvert) tries to get into the hospital to recreate his happiest Christmas, but they won’t admit him unless there’s something wrong with him…
This is my first Christmas movie of the season and it’s more of an alternative movie because most Christmas movies focus on the people who have the idyllic Christmas, but that’s not true for everyone, so I like the concept. The execution however, not so much. And it’s a shame because I love A Bronx Tale, also directed by Palminteri, but Noel just doesn’t quite come together as it should.
For starters Rose’s story is far more interesting than the others, and Sarandon was excellent in the role. The other stories were uneven though. The story about the couple felt like it moved very quickly, and too much drama happened with them too quickly without developing them beyond the basic characters of jealous cop and pretty girlfriend. Walker had some good moments later on, but notably with Arkin rather than Cruz. Arkin’s story was different, I’ll give it that, and Jules’ felt like an afterthought. None of them had the substance of Rose, so the anthology nature of the film doesn’t do it any favours because not all the stories are strong, and it does feel like Rose is given the majority of the screen time.
Perhaps a longer runtime would have been beneficial so that some of the other stories could have been fleshed out.
The other problem I had with the film is that there seemed to be an unhealthy focus on jokes about Paul Walker’s character being gay, and him having to deny it. It’s a weak source for humor and, like, if you want to have a homosexual angle in your film then just have a prominent homosexual character.
The concept of the film, to focus on those people who maybe don’t have large families or people to embrace them on Christmas Day is interesting, and it’s always good to be reminded that Christmas shouldn’t be about the presents but the people you share your life with. However, the film has a couple of fundamental problems that I just can’t look past.
