December brings in an excellent spirit of cheerfulness and
joy because of the impending end of the year and the merry festival of
Christmas. It is a festival that is probably celebrated all over the world with
the belief that people forgive and forget during the festive season to spread
happiness and good tidings. Hollywood follows suit during the festive season
with films about Christmas always having a sense of happiness and warmth to
share with its audience.
Rose is a middle-aged woman who lives alone spare for her
hospitalised mother. She is a divorcee who moved into her mother’s house after
her marriage ended followed by the death of her father and her mother being struck
with Alzheimer’s disease. She is about to spend Christmas Eve by herself but is
invited to dinner by a young and handsome colleague from her workplace. Despite
being attracted to him, she refuses his advances later in the night and decides
to bring in Christmas by her mother’s bedside. She meets a young Hispanic girl
named Nina who is having her own trouble with her jealous fiancé Mike while doubts
of pregnancy loom in her head. Mike in turn is followed around by an old waiter
named Artie who believes that Mike is the reincarnation of his dead wife. Lastly,
Jules is a young man who is ready to cause harm to himself in the hope that he
will be admitted to the hospital Rose’s mother is in because it was the
location for his fondest Christmas memory ever.
Noel was written by David Hubbard and directed by Chazz Palminteri.
It is a drama film with the theme of Christmas which was released in the year
2004 and stars Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Paul Walker, Alan Arkin and
Marcus Thomas. An important supporting role is performed by Robin Williams.
For a Christmas-themed film, it is uncharacteristically depressing.
The filmmakers opted to make a film with reality forming the core. The
characters and the situations were meant to feel real and not come across as made
up stories. However, a Christmas film is expected to have a cheerful spirit.
This film has none of it. It is expected to give the audience a warm and fuzzy
feeling and provide them with hope. Unfortunately this film lacks that panache.
In fact, even the attempt to make a realistic film can be considered a fail.
For one, it is difficult to believe a person is so delusional as to think of
young men as his reincarnated wife every Christmas and hope that they would forgive
him for his mistakes. Secondly, the character of a young Charlie is meant to
come across as Rose’s figment of imagination at the end of the film. It would
be impossible for Rose to be able to picture Charlie in his youthful avatar
considering she has never seen him before even as his present aged self. If she
does know what Charlie looks like presently, she should have been surprised to
have met him as a young man considering he appears to be her age in her
imagination when he is in fact decades older than her.
The storyline has no ebbs and surges. There are multiple
stories which are forcefully woven together to find a connection when there isn’t
one. Most of the stories have a beginning, but no conflict, followed by an inconsequential
ending. This film is not good; especially if one is looking to get into the Christmas
spirit.
