TMG Scale 8.0 P Factor 0.0 MPAA Rating: PG-13
Starring pretty much everyone in Hollywood: Hilary Swank, Jon Bon Jovi, Halle Berry, Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Seth Meyers, Katherine Heigl, James Belushi, Ashton Kutcher, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mathew Broderick and on and on.
Sweet film. Nice. Full of heartfelt messages about things that really matter in life. It is totally predictable and a bit schmaltzy, but it sort of works. There are no great belly laugh scenes just lots of amusing chuckles. With the cast and subject of New Years Eve in New York, this film was built for the DVD market of years to come. People will be renting it for New Year’s Eve parties for years to come. This is a good, feel good, movie. It is not great film making or a great story,
There is no real plot or singular story line. The movie is a dozen or more vignettes of various stories and lives on New Year’s Eve in New York City. It is a night you can fall in love, fall back in love or realize who you really love. Why? It doesn’t matter. It just is.
The pinnacle of the film comes about half way through when Hilary Swank gives an impromptu speech about the status of the ball drop on Times Square. Just hours before midnight the ball gets stuck. She explains it as a metaphor for life and how we all need to stop before it is all over and reassess what truly matters…or something like that. It is her explanation as to why we are seeing all these little stories of lives being born, old men dying, lovers quarrelling and teens trying to grow up. It falls short of a finely woven quilt of a story, but it will make you feel warm all over. Watch this film with your spouse or lover and then go out for schnapps and hot chocolate and sing a chorus of Auld Lang Syne. No Oscar nominations here. Pfeiffer looks awesome though…she always has and always will.