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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Screen Media
Salesrank: 9118
Released: October 25, 2005 |
| Our Price: $7.33 |
| Used Price: $3.19 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Joy is just around the corner when Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Paul Walker, and Alan Arkin fill out an all-star cast in this holiday classic. As five strangers come together on Christmas Eve, a story of peace, companionship, comfort, love, and healing unfolds against the backdrop of New York City. Noel, with its stunning cast and inspirational story, proves miracles are closer than you think.
Description of Noel:
A contemporary romantic drama borrowing inspiration from It's a Wonderful Life, this thought-provoking holiday film explores the lives of five strangers as they intersect at a crossroads of forgiveness and redemption. In his directorial debut, Chazz Palminteri lends a delicate hand to allow his talent-laden cast creative latitude to portray a handful of odd bedfellows who share little in common but loneliness on Christmas Eve. Susan Sarandon is remarkable as Rose Harrison, a divorced book editor who spends the holidays at a nursing home with her mother deep in the clutches of Alzheimer's. Although Rose's own story bleeds pathos, she shows genuine compassion toward others—whether it's the abandoned, mysterious patient across the hall, or the desperate fiancée, Nina (Penélope Cruz) who broke her engagement to her beloved Mike (Paul Walker) because of his suffocating jealousy. In separate subplots soon to collide, a strange bartender (Alan Arkin) divulges how his past was forever altered by someone he thinks is Mike, while another Alzheimer's visitor, Charlie Boyd (Robin Williams, uncredited) helps Rose accept the possibility of miracles in an uplifting climatic twist. Though some of the storylines inch toward the improbable, the film manages to veer just to the right of maudlin. Instead, it arrives as a heartwarming, life-affirming tale that tugs at the heartstrings (with a haunting musical score by the famed Alan Menken). Grab some 'nog and a hanky. (Rated PG for sensuality, language, and some intense thematic material) --Lynn Gibson
Noel Reviews:
Great actors who needed a better script... 
2009-12-13 - Every time I watch this movie - for 3 Christmases in a row now - I WANT to love it. It has such great acting talent in it: Sarandon, Arkin, and Robin Williams (in a strangely UNcredited supporting role), along with two attractive leads, Cruz and Walker. But the stories of 6 individuals: young couple with pre-marital difficulties; middle-aged woman in crisis (mother with Altzheimer's; older man with psychological problems over an earlier murder... do not fit well together, and that's because of severe script problems... made further problematic, but two OTHER plot lines which make NO sense of an ex-priest/ghost on his deathbed AND a young man in search of re-creating a wonderful childhood memory of a Christmas spent in an Emergency Room Christmas party! Actor/first-time Director Chazz Palminteri just hasn't thought out what kind of movie he wants to make here. I do like like the movie's orginal title song, sung by Rent's Adam Pascal.
Skip it. 
2009-08-29 - Alan Arkin thinks the main character is the reincarnation of his former lover...a little too gay for me; not something I considered in line with a Christmas movie.
NOEL 
2008-12-27 - PENELOPE WILL BE THE MOST FAMOUS ACTRESS OF THE 21 century!not only in the States but Spain and Latin America!
Wonderful Tale of Christmas Warmth and Kindness
2008-12-09 - I loved this movie, especially seeing an old friend in the character as Dennis (Sonny Marinelli), the partner to Paul Walker's Mike. Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Robin Williams, all give a stellar performance in this lovely holiday movie. Hope to see these people in other movies together, as they were wonderful to watch.
A 'Slice of life", Christmas drama.
2008-12-08 - An utterly charming, and dramatic Christmas story that delves into the real life issues that affect so many people during the holiday season.The acting is superb, and enhances an already intriguing story premise that follows the lives of realistic characters trying to deal with the issues in their lives during the hard, cold, stark reality of the Christmas season. Definitely a film that will have meaning to a lot of People. Have a few Kleenex at hand.....
