Most holiday movies consist of lovable characters on a heartfelt and somewhat sappy journey. New Year’s Eve follows this pattern, except instead of covering one or two characters on a journey, it covers 18. As a result, the characters and plotline are poorly developed.
The movie begins with two expecting couples vying for a cash prize awarded to the first baby of 2012. Then comes the story of two strangers trapped on an elevator on New Year’s Eve. Next is a bitter woman writing her resolutions and a man whose dying wish is to see the ball drop in Times Square. As more characters are introduced, their stories become intertwined.
If this concept sounds familiar, it is because it was the one used in the 2010 movie Valentine’s Day. The similarities between the two movies are so striking that a reference to Valentine’s Day was included in the outtakes during the credits of New Year’s Eve. Both movies were directed by Gary Marshall.
Even a viewer who is not familiar with Valentine’s Day can recognize that New Years Eve is a string of boring romantic comedy clichés. Its strategy was to stuff the cast list with celebrities of different generations in order to win the approval of various age groups.
With several celebrities and only 117 minutes to cover their characters, the first half of the movie is spent introducing characters and conflicts and the last half is spent resolving them and tying up loose ends. The plotlines seem very rushed.
The movie makers used shock to get the attention of the crowd by including a kiss between Zac Efron (Hairspray) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Hairspray).
It worked; the kiss was even covered by the media. The kiss may have been somewhat of a twist ending, but otherwise, the movie was too familiar. Instead of going to the theaters to watch New Year’s Eve, save a couple bucks and just rent Valentine’s Day.