Hi-Life

Bizarrely funny comedy that keeps the viewers on their toes as a bevy of characters flit all over town chasing an illusive 900 dollar payoff, but not for exactly what each supposes. Good dialogue and hilarious situations make for a snappy, fast paced film which appears to be going much more slowly.

I loved the fact that the producers of Hi-Life used real Upper West Side locations in this film, including the Hi-Life itself. It tugged at the heartstrings of this former UWS resident, now exiled to Atlanta. The movie itself was tolerable -- mainly because Peter Riegert was in it. Can't have enough Peter Riegert in a movie, as far as I'm concerned. The rest of the cast was amiable, if not very energetic. The story -- which could have been quite clever, with various folks chasing the same $900 for a variety of unethical reasons -- floundered in the face of lackadaisical pacing and cramped, dark cinematography.

"Hi-Life" is no Christmas blockbuster. It's a small, rewarding treat of a Christmas-in-NYC movie, and it's one of the few holiday movies I love to see every year. It's a slice-of-life (well, slice-of-one-night, really) film full of small, everyday characters, written smartly and played by first-rate character actors. The NYC setting is warm, colorful and nostalgic without being dated in the least... kind of like New York itself (okay, like some parts of NYC). So: if you don't enjoy that sort of thing, if you've gotta have big-name glamour, special effects, knee-slapping jokes, car crashes or heavy,"message" drama in order not to be bored - avoid this film. P.S., if you miss living in and hanging out around New York, see it, especially during the holidays.

Hi-life is a quiet movie. It has a combination of good acting, a pleasing script, and its completely unpretentious.

A good comparison would be to "Nobody's Fool" with Paul Newman, and in some ways this is a sort of urban version.

The characterizations are wonderful. Ray the bartender seems a rather hard unyielding type, but as the movie progresses we find out he's anything but unsympathetic.

Peter Reigert has a wonderful character part as a barfly-come-debt-enforcer who dishes out advice on women that he doesn't follow.

Charles Durning has a great little role as "Fatty", and I couldn't leave off discussing acting without mentioning the late Katrin Cartlidge, who gives a lovely performance as a lush with a crush.

All in all, even if you don't care for quiet little movies, put this one on the tube at Christmas time.

Hi-Life is a complicated tale of friends and acquaintances trying to outwit and bamboozle each other over a gambling debt only a few are privy to. Each of the finely scripted characters gets drawn into the conspiracy for their own reasons, being deceived by the previous conspirator yet remaining unaware of the others. Taking place one evening in a nondescript New York neighborhood, it's the tale of ordinary people living mundane lives complicated by love, hate, ego, and chicanery, yet each are a charming mixture of goodness and banality much like every one of us. The complicated plot comes together at closing time in the Hi-Life Bar where all the characters meet and their deceptions are revealed. The script is witty, the acting is first rate, and one hates to see the story end.