NOEL
Directed by: Chazz Palminteri.
Produced by: Al Corley, Zvi Howard, Eugene Musso & Bart Rosenblatt.
Written by: David Hubbard.
Director of Photography: Russell Carpenter.
Edited by: Susan Morse.
Music by: Alan Menken.
Released by: Convex Group.
Country of Origin: USA. 96 min. Rated: PG.
With: Alan Arkin, Penélope Cruz, Chazz Palminteri, Susan Sarandon, Daniel Sunjata, Marcus Thomas, Paul Walker & Robin Williams.

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
November 12, 2004