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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
NOEL
Noel is a Christmas movie, with some of what that implies - melodrama, tears, and lost
souls trying to find their way - but it also has a lot of spark, humor and intelligence. Rose (Susan
Sarandon), a forty-something successful children's book editor, has spent the last few years
taking care of her mother, who has Alzheimer's disease, and hasn't dated anyone since her
divorce. Nina (Penélope Cruz) and Mike (Paul Walker) are to be married in a week, but
his violent jealousy causes her to leave him and reconsider their relationship's future. During
which she meets Rose and they both end up in a bar where a contest is held - the person with the
best reason to hate Christmas wins a small Christmas tree. Rose enters the contest and reveals
that her only child was born and had died on Christmas day. Needless to say, in the next scene
she is holding the little tree.
Meanwhile, Mike gets involved with an older man, Artie (Alan Arkin), who seems to know
many personal things about Mike - and no, he is not Mike's long-lost father; instead, he claims
Mike is the reincarnation of his dead wife. Finally, there is Jules (Marcus Thomas), whose only
happy memory is breaking his leg at 14 and spending Christmas at the emergency room hospital.
He wants that happiness again, and he will take drastic measures to get it.
From there, these lives intersect with a refreshing dose of well-placed humor and surprising
twists. The scenes move fluently, due in large part to the excellent cast. Susan Sarandon and Alan
Arkin portray their characters with finesse, never falling into exaggeration, even when the
inevitable - but not any less annoying - background music featuring a choir feels like outright
manipulation. The rest of the cast is very good, too, never losing our sympathy. Roxana M. Ramirez
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