A genre Hollywood loves is the ‘feel good’ movie. Easily identified by their refusal to wallow in any dramatics, they deal with vaguely tough issues with a sugary sweet veneer. Fans lap these fairy-tale views of the world in droves while others avoid like the plague. A semi-follow up to Director Garry Marshall’s similar work ‘Valentine’s Day’, ‘New Year’s Eve’ is cast from this same fluffy mould. Whether that is good or not is up to others who may love this date even more after viewing or hide until it’s over.
New Year’s Eve is a time of change and trepidation for several people. Among them are Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Paul (Zac Efron) who attempt to mark off last year’s resolutions before midnight strikes. Also pondering life is Stan (Robert DeNiro) a cancer patient reminiscing about past regrets. Over the course of the evening a diverse range of personalities become affected by that one moment in time signalling change.
Like ‘Valentine’s Day’, ‘New Year’s Eve’ covers about ten different stories and connects in them into a giant collage. Providing differing viewpoints of this event the screenplay attempts to capture the spirit of the stories director Frank Capra used to make. Sadly Marshall is no Capra having neither the talent nor flair for reigning in the sentimentality of the piece. The dialogue is bland, the acting generally poor with a story quickly running out of steam near the half-way mark.
The biggest problem is you simply don’t care for the characters. Given such little screen-time they are written in a basic stereo-typical manner with few of them being likeable. To be fair similarly episodic movies have been this way although the likes of Robert Altman sometimes proved this could work with directorial efforts such as Short Cuts and The Player. ‘New Year’s Eve’ is a banal facsimile with the actors providing the requisite performances in order to cash in their pay-checks.
This highly slushy and corny slice of life may find some admirers although others are advised to steer clear. ‘New Year’s Eve’ is a fairly insipid ode to an event lasting no longer in the memory after the clock chimes at midnight.
Movie Review Rating 1 / 10
Movie Review by Patrick Moore
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Patrick Moore's Movie Review is an alternative look at current movie releases in Australia.
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