Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Filipe Neto I decided to watch this movie on Christmas day afternoon with my family. I knew almost nothing about it but the title caught my eye... a movie about Christmas to watch on Christmas. Makes sense.The script mixes the dreams and problems of three people: a middle-aged lady who dreams of her mother, Alzheimer's in a vegetative state, getting better enough to talk to her; a girl who dreams of solving her problems with her jealous fiance and, finally, this same fiance, who lives being pestered by a man who believes that he's the reincarnation of his deceased wife, of whom he didn't had time to apologize for a fight. Dreams, the yearnings of several people winding down on Christmas Eve... we've seen things like this in several movies before and this one doesn't bring anything new. What's interesting is to see so many familiar faces together in a movie that's not well known.Penelope Cruz and Paul Walker gave life to the protagonists. She, of course, is a hot-tempered Latina and he's a man in love but jealous. Both are beautiful, played very well, and their chemistry worked in the romantic scenes. Susan Sarandon made a more complex character, full of deep psychological shadows and obvious difficulty in relating to people. In a way, she made this film deeper and emotive, prevented it from being dominated by the main couple. Alan Arkin and Robbin Williams made relatively brief appearances, but important for the script's unfolding. Of course, Williams was impeccable and Arkin made a lot of pain in his character, making us have some compassion for him.Looking further, I understand the reason this movie never took off. If we exclude the star-cast and their good performance, we have virtually nothing here. It's just one of those movies we've watched and forget, so it will surely fall by the wayside... well, it was released in 2004, we're now starting 2018... looking back, does anyone remember this movie? I have my doubts. Still, if you're tired of watching always the same movies at Christmas ("Home Alone", "Sound of Music" or those eternal biblical epics released fifty years ago) and you're simply looking to surprise your family with something that none of them still saw, this movie might be a good bet for the Christmas holiday.

blanche-2 In need of some Christmas spirit, I decided to watch "Noel" from 2004. All I saw was the name Susan Sarandon, so I didn't realize that the late Paul Walker and the late Robin Williams, who died within nine months of each other, were also in this film. Reason enough to cry right there.Noel is the story of several people on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Walker is Mike, a police officer, engaged to Nina (Penelope Cruz). His jealousy is tearing apart their relationship. He has another problem. Artie (Alan Arkin) who runs a coffee shop is extra-attentive and shows up at Mike's house with a wild story.Sarandon's character, Rose, is a successful book editor who is divorced. She is caring for her mother, who has Alzheimer's and doesn't talk. In the next room there is a man who seems to be in a coma. He's always alone, so Rose, as she's decorating her mother's room, goes into his room and puts an angel on his window. In the corner of the room, behind the door, sits Charlie (Robin Williams), who startles her.Rose meets Nina after she leaves Mike and goes to her family's Christmas Eve dinner. And she runs into Williams again; he has a bizarre story as well.Then there's Marcus who has someone to break his hand so he can be in the hospital on Christmas. As a child, it was his best Christmas ever. We can assume from that he didn't have a very happy upbringing. Mike, Dennis, and Artie all end up at the hospital at the same time.This is a really lovely film about miracles and angels who walk the earth whom we don't recognize as such, and how we can touch each other's lives without knowing it. It was very sweet and uplifting and, as I said, a massive tearjerker given the presence of the two late stars. One chose death; one had death thrust upon him. Either way, it's tragic.

Prismark10 Noel is directed by (writer & actor) Chazz Palminteri. It stars Susan Sarandon, Penélope Cruz, Paul Walker, Alan Arkin and a cameo by Robin Williams. It centres on five strangers who are linked together by a series of events that take place on Christmas Eve in New York.Susan Sarandon is a middle aged woman coping with caring for her hospitalised mother who has Alzheimer's. Penélope Cruz and Paul Walker are a couple in a troubled relationship because of his insane jealousy. Alan Arkin is a café owner who is in search of his wife's forgiveness and thinks that Walker is his wife re-incarnated. Marcus Thomas is a young man who self harms so he can attend a Christmas party in the emergency room as it brings back happy childhood memories.Robin Williams is a former priest who lost his faith and befriends Sarandon.The film has an off centre and slightly surreal, even a supernatural edge but it really does not amount to much. There are four Oscar winning actors in this film so its an all star cast but the interlinking stories are not strong enough. It does not have feel-good edge that many other Christmas films have.

D_Burke "Noel" is a film that flew so far under the radar upon its release in 2004 that I'm not sure if it was ever in theaters. I only found out about it from its DVD release over five years later. My guess is that it went straight to video, since there is no information on Wikipedia, Box Office Mojo, or IMDb on how well it performed.It is a shame either way that "Noel" still goes unnoticed, because the cast alone makes it worth a look. It not only stars four Oscar winners (two of whom would win Oscars after 2004), but you don't just ignore a movie starring Susan Sarandon and Penelope Cruz! Those two actresses especially have such charisma and screen presence, not to mention Hollywood credibility.With such an impressive roster of acting talent, not to mention being directed by underrated director and actor Chazz Palminteri, it is truly baffling how it went completely unrecognized. However, the movie's problems lie mainly in its storytelling.There are three good stories being told here. The first story revolves around Rose (Sarandon), a divorcée who spends a lot of time outside the office caring for her mother. Rose's mom is stricken with late-stage Alzheimer's, rendering her catatonic. Because of this, Rose finds herself pretty lonely on Christmas Eve, even though she is pursued by a handsome, younger co-worker (Daniel Sujeta).The second story, which takes place concurrently, revolves around Mike (Paul Walker), a NYPD officer whose fiancé is the luscious Nina (Cruz). They have a good relationship, but his jealousy towards virtually any man who looks at her, including a male friend of hers (who is actually gay. Oops!), forces Nina to walk out on him, at least temporarily. Nina says to him, "Other men look at me. Get used to it!". And beautiful women NEVER look at Paul Walker?In a strange subset of that second story, and the whole movie, Mike finds himself receiving unwanted attention from Artie (Alan Arkin), a waiter who serves him in a diner. Artie seems to know that Mike's favorite cookies are almond butter, even though Mike claims to have never seen the man before in his life.This subplot between Artie and Mike was by far the most disappointing aspect of the film. Mike seems to assume that Artie is gay, and attracted to him. I wish the dialogue from the film had not gone there. When Artie's motives for following Mike are later revealed, they were not what I had expected, but I still felt cheated. I thought more information needed to be given about Artie's character, and it would have helped to see Alan Arkin interact with other people besides Paul Walker. For the most part, he never does.The third story revolves around Jules (Marcus Thomas). You don't know much about him, except that he's lonely on Christmas Eve, and intentionally breaks his hand just so he can attend a hospital Christmas party just for patients.It takes the movie a while to answer the question of why Jules wants to celebrate Christmas in a hospital instead of just crashing an office Christmas party somewhere else. There can't be a shortage of those in New York City.Of the three stories, Susan Sarandon's was the best, with Marcus Thomas' in a close second. The story with Cruz, Walker, and Arkin fell a distant third. Not only were the characters of Mike and Artie grossly underdeveloped, but Cruz, as Nina, took an immediate backseat after the first 30 minutes of the film. It is a crime for an actress as good as Cruz to get less screen time than Walker. The subplot about Nina being pregnant almost seemed like a cheap way to give her more screen time, when really her character should have been developed more.The main problem of this film is that separately, with more character development, all three of these mini-stories would have made good feature films on their own. The problem with the film lies in what these three stories have to do with one another.Sure, the three stories take place in New York City on Christmas Eve, but so do 8 million other stories. The main characters interact within the film, but not in ways that make their interactions directly influence other aspects of the overall story.The only time you see Jules interact with Rose is when she's going into a hospital and he holds the door open for her. Jules tries to make small talk with Mike as they sit together in a crowded hospital waiting room, but Mike clearly doesn't care what Jules is telling him.The way in which Rose and Nina meet is completely contrived, as Rose enters a Hispanic family's Christmas Eve dinner party for no apparent reason. Nina decides to leave the party with Rose, they go to a bar, talk for a while, and never meet again. They also don't seem to think about each other again.Artie, meanwhile, does not interact with any other main character at all. I would have liked to have seen him meet with Rose. After all, Susan Sarandon is a difficult face to forget in spite of the fact that she's famous.There are no problems with the acting in this film. Some of the characters are underdeveloped, and needed a legitimate back story like a man in the desert needs water. While the idea of strangers meeting on Christmas Eve and influencing each others lives, directly or indirectly, has been done before, it still makes a movie like this intriguing. You can throw in all the themes of Christmas miracles you want, but if you tell three stories at once, they have to connect somehow. Otherwise, why tell them?