CAST: Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vergara, Jessica Biel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Katherine Heigl, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Josh Duhamel, Ice Cube, Jon Bon Jovi, Seth Meyers, Til Schweiger; DIRECTOR: Garry Marshal; SCREENWRITER: Katherine Fugate; FILM PRODUCER: Mike Karz, Wayne Allan Rice; MUSICAL DIRECTOR: John Debney; GENRE: Comedy, Romance DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros; LOCATION: New York City, USA; RUNNING TIME: 117 minutes
Technical Assessment: 3.5
Moral Assessment: 3.5
Cinema Rating: For viewers 14 years old and above
New Year’s Eve eavesdrops on the goings on in the lives of an armful of New Yorkers during the last day of the year. There’s pastry chef Laura (Katherine Heigle) still smarting from being stood up by would-be groom Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi); a devoted nurse Aimee (Halle Berry) accompanying a patient dying of cancer Stan (Robert de Niro); Claire (Hilary Swank), vice president of the Times Square Alliance whose main concern is to see to it that the ball on Times Square drops according to new year count-down; security guard Brendan (Chris Bridges), friend and supporter of Claire; Russian master electrician Kominsky (Hector Elizondo) in a make-it-or-break-it new year’s eve fix; Kim (Sarah Jessica Parker), a single mother pursuing a runaway daughter Hailey (Abigail Breslin); new year hater Randy (Ashton Kutcher) getting trapped in a freight elevator with Elise (Lea Michele); Paul (Zac Efron) a courier who in exchange for precious new year’s ball tickets is helping an uptight elderly woman Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer); a stranded man in Connecticut named Sam (Josh Duhamel) who has no choice but to hitch a ride back to New York with a curious family in order to deliver a new year’s eve speech and to reunite with a woman he met with exactly one year ago; pregnant Tess (Jessica Biel) and her husband (Seth Meyers) in a race with another couple to be the first to give birth in year 2012 in order to get the hospital’s $25,000 prize.
Before splitting hairs about the technical aspects of New Year’s Eve, we had to make sure every star in the movie is mentioned. You’ll know why later. Stories of these characters are interwoven in this fast-paced feel-good rom-com that critics either love or hate. It may be often mushy, contrived, implausible, but it is nonetheless likeable, not just watchable, because it’s lighthearted and leaves viewers in an upbeat mood. Those who say it’s merely a string of disconnected plots with characters not given enough time to develop or deepen, are speaking out of narrow expectations, because in reality, that is life in New York! The seemingly “disconnected” plots flow from a deeper wellspring of thought that puts New York in a different light.
Before splitting hairs about the technical aspects of New Year’s Eve, we had to make sure every star in the movie is mentioned. You’ll know why later. Stories of these characters are interwoven in this fast-paced feel-good rom-com that critics either love or hate. It may be often mushy, contrived, implausible, but it is nonetheless likeable, not just watchable, because it’s lighthearted and leaves viewers in an upbeat mood. Those who say it’s merely a string of disconnected plots with characters not given enough time to develop or deepen, are speaking out of narrow expectations, because in reality, that is life in New York! The seemingly “disconnected” plots flow from a deeper wellspring of thought that puts New York in a different light.
New Year’s Eve is about New York and New Yorkers. It could have been titled “New York, New Year” for its focus on the Times Square mega-event but the human values it espouses are as basic as human rights. By the opening voice-over alone, New Year’s Eve sounds poised to disprove the notion that there is no longer magic or beauty in New York. Its closing voice-over clinches the whole movie’s message: love, forgiveness, hope, family, commitment, compassion, second chances. The cruelest rants against the movie are directed towards its stellar cast: Why (they ask) would such great names in moviedom stoop that low appearing in a movie that at most is a mere vehicle for hard-sell product placements? CINEMA prefers to give the cast the benefit of the doubt since this movie is about new year and new life, released worldwide before Christmas. The actors—mostly Oscar awardees and nominees—must have owned the movie’s message and thus didn’t mind risking their reputation in order to put it across. An intention that good can’t make the movie that bad, could it?
