This film is going to kick-off my week long (hell, I might even make it two week long) Christmas-Film-Fest. I saw this film when it first came out, and outside of a few moments I mostly forgot what it was about. Sixteen years can do that to you. Nora Ephron is one of those queen's of romantic-comedies, so it's pretty enjoyable to see her tackle this dark, farcical material, and with such an eccentric cast. Here we are delighted by some lovely old stand-bys including none other than Mr. Steve Martin, he brilliant Madeline Kahn, and the never-cast-enough Rita Wilson, along with many people who were new-comers at the time - including an embarrassing performance by Adam Sandler doing the schtick that was expected of him at the time. Liev Shrieber is more-or-less introduced here in a pretty memorable role, and of course Juliette Lewis is in fine form. For those with keen eyes you'll notice a one line role from a very very young Haley Joel Osmet, and if you pay particular attention you'll notice that the male and female rollerbladers that book-end the film are none other than Jon Stewart and Parker Posey.
This film isn't super-heavy on the Christmas stuff, but it is there and it does give it some extra oomph in the bits where it's more important than others. This is one of those films that could easily have been a play - and I wonder if it wouldn't be just a tad stronger in that medium. I like this film enough, but I do find that it gets a little draggy in the middle - the plethora of great performances more often than not makes up for it though. If you haven't seen this one before it's probably not the first Christmas-esque film that I'd throw at you in a "you must absolutely see this" fashion, but I wouldn't dissuade you from checking it out either should it pique your interest. Not to give away too much but it's essentially about a suicide helpline is being shut down and the operator of it must find some way to keep it open whilst surrounded by a quirky cast of characters, all with their own problems.
It still stands up over time and I did enjoy it - so there's your half-ass recommendation.
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