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| Cast and Credits |
| Cast: |
Chazz Palminteri, Susan Sarandon, Paul Walker, Penelope Cruz, Alan Arkin |
| Director: |
Chazz Palminteri |
| Writer: |
David Hubbard |
| Rating: |
Rated PG for sensuality, thematic material and some language. |
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Reviewed By: Brendan Cullin
Rating: 6.5/10
Got a chance to catch a screening of the movie Noel at the Toronto International Film Festival. It ended up being quite a treat, as director Chazz Palminteri sat just a few seats away from me during the screening and then fielded a handful of questions from the crowd when the movie was over. He was very cordial and open and I quite enjoyed listening to him talk.
As for the movie? Well, the movie takes place during the Christmas season in New York City. It features three main stories (and a few minor stories) that involve rather empathetic characters that are simply trying to seek happiness during the joyous, but also lonely, season. The "main" story is about a very single lady named Rose (Susan Sarandon) who spends the holiday season visiting her sick mother in the hospital instead of drinking egg nog with a younger male friend who has a thing for the much older woman.
The second story focuses on one of New York's finest, Mike (Paul Walker), an officer whose possessive behaviour is causing friction in his relationship with his gorgeous fiance Nina (Penelope Cruz) but an officer who also must deal with a strange old man named Artie (Alan Arkin), who believes he has some sort of past connection with Mike.
Thirdly, we have Jules (Macus Thomas), another lonely soul who yearns to spend his Christmas in a New York hospital because the only happy memories he has of the holiday season are from his childhood days when he spent a Christmas eve in the hospital and participated in a wonderful Chrismas eve party. Jules is willing to do just about anything short of having his heart ripped out by Bruce Lee to end up back in the hospital on this particular Christmas eve.
Noel also stars Robin Williams in a small, but important, uncredited role, as a mysterious stranger who makes an appearance to pass on his words of wisdom to the desperate Rose. Mr. Palminteri also appears briefly in his movie (he is credited).
Noel reminded me a bit of the movie Love Actually, in that it takes place at Christmas, it has a few different stories going on at the same time that are intertwined in their own unique way, it has some humour (although not hearly as funny as Love Actually) and it does its best to pull at the old heart strings.
And therin lies the problem with Noel. Sure it has a few laughs. And sure you like the characters and wish them all the best in their search for happiness. But in the end, I didn't love the characters AS MUCH as I should have and I didn't feel enough emotional attachment to their stories to enjoy the movie as much as I wanted to enjoy it. I liked Noel. But I didn't love it and I didn't come even close to shedding a tear during the entire movie. It just seemed to lack that emotional attachment that it so desperately needed, at least from my point of view.
There is a lot to like about Noel. Quite a bit, in fact. It is fairly well-written. It is well-acted (Paul Walker actually is an asset to the movie). And Penelope Cruz is absolutely stunning in every single last second that she graces the screen. But there's not a lot of love there (well, if you take out Penelope). Not like I loved the Keira Knightly character, or the guy with the placards or the Hugh Grant character or the English guy who had the threesome (or was that a foursome?) in Love Actually. Perhaps it is unfair of me to compare Noel to Love Actually but they just had so many similarities that it is difficult not to compare the two movies.
In the end, Noel is a good movie, a decent movie, perhaps if it is released around Christmastime it will be a movie that some people will enjoy and a movie that will give other people hope. Noel is a likeable movie but it is not really a loveable movie and I have learned the hard way, in this day and age, sometimes likeable just ain't good enough.
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