Who’s in it? Sarah Jessica Parker, Halle Berry, Lea Michele, Ashton Kutcher, Zac Efron, Hilary Swank, Robert De Niro, Jessica Biel
The plot Boasting more celebs than you can shake a stint in rehab at, New Year’s Eve is director Garry Marshall’s follow-up to his equally star-heavy 2010 flick, Valentine’s Day. And although some of the VD stars return for NYE, confusingly, Biel and Kutcher pop up as entirely different characters.
As the titles suggest, it’s New Year’s Eve in New York City, and there are plenty of intertwining tales to be told, starting with the woman in charge of the Big Apple celebrations, Claire Morgan (Swank), who is super-busy putting the final touches to the world-famous ball-drop, with the help of her long-suffering assistant, Brandon (Ludacris).
Meanwhile, Ahren Records secretary, Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer,) quits her job and enlists the delivery guy, Paul (Efron) to help her work through the list of resolutions she made last January 1, but hasn’t had time to do, and achieve them before midnight, in exchange for a pair of tickets to the Ahren Records NYE party.
Spinning off nicely from Paul, we find his sister Kim (SJP), having trouble with her teenage daughter, Hailey (Abigail Breslin), who wants to go to Times Square for the party, whilst mum thinks she’s too young; and Paul’s flatmate Reed (Kutcher), resolutely refusing to celebrate the evening after being dumped by his girlfriend.
The tear-jerking scenes come courtesy of hospitalised Stan (De Niro), who is suffering from terminal cancer and may not live through the night, but is desperate to see the ball drop one last time; and his nurse, Aimee (Berry), who has to make do with video-conferencing with her husband, who’s serving in Afghanistan. Welling up already? You will do!
Jessica Biel’s competitive Tess gets involved in a baby-off with fellow expectant mother, Sarah (Sarah Paulson), after discovering that the first woman to give birth on January 1 wins a bonus; wannabe singer, Elise (Michele) gets trapped in
a lift with grouchy Reed, and businessman Sam (Josh Duhamel), heads off into the cold night to find the woman he fell in love with last New Year’s Eve. Phew!
Rating 4 out of 5
