Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is a light, charming Christmas movie. It works mainly because of all the talented actors involved. (You can look at the IMDb listing to see who they all are.) The plot involves different groups of people being stuck on elevators in New York City for several hours on Christmas Eve. We get to know the people and see how they react to missing their Christmas Eve plans. I didn't really care for a couple of the groups, mainly the hospital elevator and the group of musicians. However, the elevator with James Roday and a neighbor was especially sweet and touching. And I would just like to hang out with the people in the mall elevator! Give this a try if you're looking for a sweet Christmas movie to watch.

I guess that this is as short a summary as I can write. And it does have certain of the same qualities as Love Actually has, which makes me wonder why people don't like it much.

A philosophical high strung bunch of people stuck together, and how the story develops. Now what makes the story lacking a little bit, are the questions we are stuck with. You'll figure them out too, if you see the film.

Christmas Eve has potential to being somewhat more, though.

What about a Directors Cut? There has to be a few more questions answered in other footage that wasn't used in this cutting?

Let's see that, next Christmas.

Watch this movie before you read some of the moronic reviews below. They are filled with racists and people complaining about racism and those who clearly need the plot spelt out for them. People look for all the flaws instead of enjoying a movie and I feel sad for their lives

Over-all good but not great. it is deff, feel good but leaves questions at the end.

6.4

As the message boards and the limited reviews have been somewhat merciless on this good-but-not-great movie, I feel duty bound to write a few good words.

I decided to invest a small amount of money on the film, because I was curious how James Roday would do outside of 'Psych' (which I have generally liked). But I had a pretty good experience watching the movie. Critical and audience reaction doubtless has reflected the fact that it is not a comedy, nor is it particularly warm (!). The writer-director (I believe) wanted to discuss a number of large life issues. (The movie actually might have worked better on some ordinary day, as very few of the subplots actually resolve with reference to the holiday).

Some of these are successful, some not. I particularly enjoyed the musicians in the elevator, and also doctors and patient. The scene with the five millenials (flaky girls, know-it-all, docent, and body builder) worked. So did the duo of Jon Heder and Max Casella. The solo of Patrick Stewart and the James Roday (sigh) did not work so well.

All that said, however, the different reactions of the trapped groups was interesting and dramatic. The critics' views that they are all unlikable is Grinch stuff. The reveals of the interconnections among them (done with some subtlety) were the script at its best.

All in all, a sort of Ship of Fools movie that ultimately worked, maybe because the formula is so strong. The critics and some of our acerbic friends on this site are way too negative.

Patrick Stewart is a diverse and lovable actor, one that can fit any role and be endearing to audience. The first flaw of many this movie has is secluding him form the rest of cast and makes him recites dull version of A Christmas Carol. The other plots are different groups of similarly pretentious characters trying to be humorous and delivering some warm message, all of which fail to do so.

This is several short stories woven together with one underlying theme; finding solace in unfavorable situation of confined in elevator. There are so many noises and gibberish, it just doesn't feel authentic in any way. Most of these characters speak and do things no ordinary person would even consider normal. Perhaps the movie would like audience to suspense judgement to these supposed colorful characters, but they are simply revolting.

Maybe only one or two of them are decent, and that's already an overstatement considering they rely so heavily on terrible script. If this is an attempt to build any connection then it's a misguided one. The photographer and random lady subplot is superbly awful, almost rude even. They are just silly in an attempt for mild romance which eventually ends up creepy and inauthentic.

There is actually a good cast here, they are just trapped in situation or company no one would like to see, let alone experience. The orchestra assembly stuck in one elevator is just too much, too crude and with no real focus. Jon Heder is pretty good, although he must content with horrible boss cliché. The one elevator that has some kind of heart is the hospital one, it sometimes looks real enough, however it's still lacking depth to present a drama of faith.

With so many angles and good cast, it's actually surprising that every single one of them is flawed. Having insipid script and appalling characters, it's better to be stuck on an elevator in real life than trapped watching this.