A bit of everything, mostly bad

Rating: 6/10 (14 April 2007)

The ending was better than the start, so I rate it just below average. The thing is that some parts were nice, others brilliant, while most of it was boring and unbelievable.
To start with the beginning, two women who don't know each other decide to swap houses without even meeting each other. Is that even possible? Anyway, they both have complicated love lives they want to escape from, one being British, the other American. Now here is a great opportunity for humour, but there was little or none of that.
To continue, the stories of both women are completely separate. It's like there are two movies into one (which partly explains why they made this film 130 minutes long!). The situations in both movies are partly interesting, partly cliché, but most of the script is boring or completely unbelievable. It's very hard to relate to any of the characters.
To end it, I think that Eli Wallach and Dustin Hoffman made this film. Yes, Dustin Hoffman plays in this one with a role he couldn't have failed, since it involved one cameo line. It's not like the other actors did not play well, it's just that the script was awful in some places and the embarrassment of trying to place themselves into a bad role was obvious. Frank Black in a romantic role? At least we didn't have him belly dance in his underwear in this one.
Bottom line, it is a shallow film. It brushed past so many interesting themes like Anglo-American interaction, old movies, movie soundtracks, movie trailers (yes, it seems most movie professions were present in this one!), the golden age of movies... All that remained was two confused couples spending New Year's Eve together. Can one destroy a (potential) romantic movie more with something more than make it also a Christmas movie?
So, my suggestion (strangely it makes me sad to say it) is to avoid this film. Great potential, horrendous delivery!