take that, bob the moo!

Rating: 9/10 (16 September 2004)

I think the film does a wonderful job of combining all the stories and relationships. I made a relationship web after I saw it, and the overlap was frightening in its complexity. It is in part because of this that it felt so real to me, despite the obvious hokeyness of everything turning out happily on Christmas Eve. The hokeyness itself is endearing, although it is also realistic that not everyone ends up completely happy: Laura Linney's character, for example. This reminds me of Amelie: Happy, but not sickeningly so. Those that do achieve it in a very humorous way (Colin landing the four hot American girls). And Billy Bob as president... my sides almost split. Other people seem to have different reactions, to some extent, than I did. I've introduced it to three other people, with a result of "it was good". They didn't seem to warm to it the way I did. As I am usually, I admit modestly, quite discriminating in my movie tastes, and refuse to see the crap that my friends are subjected to, it seems that this film is more about personal reactions than merely about quality. I love the warm feeling of a feel-good movie, combined with the faint stomachache of prolonged laughter. This is also a very important message for today: however disgusting things may seem, love is always there underneath. We just need to hope it surfaces in the end.