大象传媒

Despite the earnest intentions of director Chazz Palminteri, the only proof of a yuletide miracle in Noel is the fact that it ever got made. Typifying what's fast become hackneyed territory for indie cinema, the lives of lonely New Yorkers are clumsily entwined to remind us that every person does make a difference. While Robin Williams is guilty of dishing out many a half-baked platitude, it's depressing to see Susan Sarandon up to her neck in this stodgy Christmas pudding.

She plays a childless divorcee whose life revolves around caring for a mother suffering from Alzheimer's. In short, Rose leads a dull existence and it's conveyed in painfully mundane detail over the course of one Christmas Eve. Meanwhile Paul Walker and Pen茅lope Cruz are caught in a humdrum relationship dilemma while Alan Arkin is just plain creepy as a codger who fixates on Walker's pretty-boy cop. Most redundant of all is Marcus Thomas as someone whose idea of a good time involves self-mutilation and hospital-brand eggnog.

"INANE JABS AT COMEDY"

Besides being incredibly tedious, the most grating aspect of this urban tapestry is that writer David Hubbard tries to palm off lazy plotting for divine intervention. Despite the innate suspicions of hardnosed city folk, these characters spill their guts at the drop of a hat. A scene where Rose divulges her sob story to a pub full of revellers is especially bogus. Likewise Arkin - who was wickedly funny in the similarly themed 13 Conversations About One Thing - is sabotaged by Hubbard's inane jabs at comedy. With its starry cast, Noel recalls the anticipation of unwrapping a Christmas gift only to find it's the same old socks again.