BEFORE: Still more changes to this book I'm typing up - and since I took Monday off, the author got ahead of me and I'm playing catch-up. Every time I re-edit and re-print the book, I'm hoping it's for the final time.
I'm always wondering whether it makes more sense to organize my films by actor, and watch all the Steve Martin films together, for example, or to pick from my remaining films thematically. I've sort of settled into a pattern that does a little bit of both. It didn't make as much sense to watch this film right after "Housesitter", but I was able to build up a theme week that circled back and re-connected to it. Linking tonight is provided by Tina Fey, who was in both "Date Night" with Steve Carell and "Baby Mama" with Steve Martin.
It may seem odd to watch a Christmas-themed movie in August, but it makes sense when you look back on the last few films - all containing oddballs, weird neighbors and idiots. Let's add a few nuts to the mix.
THE PLOT: The events focus around a crisis hotline business on one crazy night during the Christmas holidays.
AFTER: This film sort of suffers from the same problem as "Neighbors", in that it seems to be generating comedy randomly, firing off in twelve different directions, without a lot of coherence.
The film is populated by the weird staff of a crisis hotline, but also weird people who hang out in the building, a couple of weird friends, and some random strangers who show up at the center, rather than spend Christmas Eve alone or with their families. This includes a pregnant disaffected make-up artist, her loser mural-painter boyfriend, a ruthless landlord, a misunderstood transvestite, and a guy who's constantly performing made-up songs on a ukulele. Throw in a veterinarian and a couple of anti-holiday rollerbladers, and you've got - well, pretty much an incoherent mess.
I just had problems buying into it, because by and large it doesn't seem to represent the way that people act, going about their daily lives. I know it's all for the sake of comedy, but people still have to act in a manner consistent with reality, or if not, there needs to be a reason why they're acting differently from other people. For example, if someone is stuck in an elevator and asks another person for help, that becomes a priority situation. I, or you, or anyone rational, would go get that person help, or the tool they need to get free, and not walk into another room, start relating personal information on another matter, and need to be reminded that they just left someone stuck in an elevator. Is the character THAT easily distracted - that it's "out of sight, out of mind"? Of course not.
And it's not just that, characters disregard eviction notices, loaded handguns, vandalism, and worst of all, people who are thisclose to committing suicide. Umm, they characters do realize that they run a hotline, right? So hearing a gunshot over the phone would be a serious occurence, not something that would be so casually shrugged off. The fact that the film mines suicide for comedy potential is, in its own way, equally heinous.
It's just so rare that the words "pointless" and "brilliant" appear together in a review - so maybe you might want to consider adding a point to your film, that's all, just some friendly advice. Make of it what you will.
Also, the majority of the "seams" of the stitched-together comedy are quite visible. You just know when a serial killer is mentioned early in the film, it will probably be an important fact later. The main character's break-up just leaves him available for connecting with another character, and so on. Nothing struck me as overly surprising, almost everything seemed "planted" so that it could be harvested in the plot later.
I could have saved this for the holidays, except I don't plan on watching movies past October this year - 50 more, then I'm done for the year. But this does remind me that I need to start thinking about the theme for my annual holiday CD.
Also starring Rita Wilson (last seen in "It's Complicated"), Madeline Kahn (last seen in "City Heat"), Adam Sandler (last seen in "Anger Management"), Robert Klein (last seen in "The Owl and the Pussycat"), Juliette Lewis (last seen in "The Darwin Awards"), Anthony LaPaglia (last heard in "Happy Feet"), Rob Reiner (last seen in "The First Wives Club"), Liev Schreiber (last seen in "Taking Woodstock", where he also played a transvestite), with cameos from Parker Posey (last seen in "Blade: Trinity"), Jon Stewart (last seen in "Death to Smoochy"), Joely Fisher (last seen in "The Mask"), Garry Shandling, Steven Wright (last seen in "The Muse").
RATING: 3 out of 10 Christmas trees
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