Seems like they were running out of ideas. There are multiple movies for each holiday already. There are also (far) too many romantic movies already, taking place during a holiday. So the film-makers must have thought; what is a holiday that hasn't been used all that much yet? I know! New year's eve! But there actually is a good reason for it why this, to my knowledge, hasn't been used yet for any romantic movies; it's just not a romantic holiday, or what new year's eve is all about in the first place.
They tried to divert this by throwing in multiple plot lines, that aren't necessarily involving romance but in its core, this movie still obviously wants to be seen as a romantic movie.
It's pretty a much a movie being done in the trend which first got started by "Love Actually". That means that the movie is featuring many different story lines, all starring many different characters, which all share the theme of love. But after having seen this movie, I would urge the film-makers to go and see "Love Actually" again. That movie did actually managed to find a balance between its different story lines and know how to end some of them timely, while in this movie stuff just goes on and on, while it isn't even being much good or interesting in the first place.
The plot lines are some of the most generic ones you could think off. This movie offers absolutely nothing new or honest or heartfelt in it. It's actually being a very distant and random movie to watch, in which some of the plot lines fall simply flat because they are making such a redundant impression.
It's simply trying to follow far too much characters and plot lines. Because of this, you start to forget about certain characters and when they suddenly show up again, you just aren't caring all that much for any of them anymore. If you ever cared for any of them, that is.
And of course the movie opens a can of celebrities again for this movie. And for some reason, it are all of the stars you expect to see in a movie like this. They are not the biggest stars but they are big within its particular genre. I'm talking about actors such as Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher and Sarah Jessica Parker. It doesn't help the movie much that it's also staring a couple of A-list actors in it as well. Oscar nominees and winners such as Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry and Hilary Swank. But they are all here to receive a paycheck and it's not like their presence is adding all that much to this movie. They are just as generic and poorly written as every other character, so they also never get the opportunity to really show any of their skills.
And that really is the movie its biggest flaw; its writing. First of all the story, or rather said its stories aren't much good, original or interesting to start with but also the way they are being written is really without any creativity behind it. They all progress in such an incredible predictable way and the movie is lacking some good comedy or snappy dialog in it to spice up any of it. It really makes the movie feel like a drag and it should had ended 30 minutes earlier. Really, 2 hours is far too long for this movie. You could tell that they just didn't really cared. They knew this would be a movie that would be making a lot of money (which it also did), regardless of anything. It certainly goes at the expense of the quality and the entertainment value of this movie.
Seriously, I just can't see this movie entertaining anyone, for its entire duration. It's probably not the worst genre movie you will ever see but it still is a very lacking and generically done one, made to cash in quick and easy, during the holiday season.
4/10
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