New Line Cinema takes a page from film history with latest entry “New Year’s Eve,” a film nearly as chock full of stars as the Milky Way galaxy. The film sports an illustrious group of actors: Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Hector Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Hilary Swank, and Sofia Vergara.
“New Year’s Eve” seems like a throwback to the golden era of cinema, where studios like MGM would trot out their entire stable of contracted stars and fashion a movie around them. “New Year’s Eve” doesn’t fall far from that historic cinematic tree.
More successful in sentiment than last year’s “Valentine’s Day,” director Garry Marshall returns with his creative team of screenwriter Katherine Fugate and producers Mike Karz and Wayne Rice for this year’s star-studded outing. Perhaps some of the success of this year’s film is due to the holiday itself.
New Year’s Eve is a holiday that most celebrate regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity. Also, there’s a romanticized emotional pull of sweeping out the old year and ringing in the new. As Marshall says in the film’s production notes, it’s “the perfect opportunity to take stock of things, to think about the mistakes of the past year and about how maybe you can do better.”
The film opens with a valentine to all that is glorious about New York City during the holidays — horse-drawn carriages, Christmas light baubles and oversize ornaments, the Rockefeller Center tree, to name just a few. Among those we follow are Claire (Swank) the woman in charge of the entire New Year’s Eve/Times Square ball-dropping extravaganza; her police officer friend Brendan (Bridges); and top, veteran electrician Kominsky (Elizondo, starring in his 17th Marshall film).
We then meet dozens of other characters. There’s Ingrid (Pfeiffer), a mousy record company secretary with a new lease on life after a near-fatal accident. Ingrid decides to fulfill her bucket list of New Year’s resolutions with the help of bike messenger Paul (Efron), whom she bribes with highly sought-after party tickets. Surprisingly, this ends up being one of the sappiest yet most rewarding story lines in the film. (Efron and Pfeiffer’s chemistry might stem from their earlier collaboration in “Hairspray.”)
Then there are dueling birthing couples (Meyers and Biel vs. Paulson and Schweiger). Each couple is determined to win the $25,000 awarded to the first New Year’s baby. In addition to life celebrated, there is also life slipping away in the form of De Niro’s Stan, whose dying wish is to see the New Year’s Eve ball drop again, while nurse Aimee (Berry) tries to make her patient comfortable.
Bon Jovi stars as rocker Jensen trying to win back his ex, Laura (Heigl), who is catering his New Year event with sous-chef Ava (Sofia Vergara). “Glee’s” Lea Michele, a wannabe backup singer, finds herself stuck in an elevator with Mr. New Year Negative, Randy (Kutcher). Meanwhile, single mother Kim (Parker) quarrels with teenage daughter (Breslin) over hanging out in Times Square with her teen friends. And in the final main story, successful womanizer Sam (Duhamel) pines over a woman he met last New Year’s Eve — who might it be?
“New Year’s Eve” doesn’t propose to be anything but holiday fluff with sentimental themes. And with its New York setting and a galaxy of stars, that’s not necessarily a bad thing this holiday season.
“New Year’s Eve is Rated PG-13 and opens December 9.
For other film articles by Lori Huck, check out:
‘The Artist’ Review: A Silent Masterpiece in Modern Film
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