Noel (film)

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Noel

Noel film poster
Directed by Chazz Palminteri
Produced by Al Corley,
Howard Rosenman
Written by David Hubbard
Starring Paul Walker
Penélope Cruz
Susan Sarandon
Alan Arkin
Marcus Thomas
Robin Williams
Chazz Palminteri
Distributed by Convex Group
Release date(s) September 12, 2004
Running time 96 minutes
Language English
IMDb profile

Noel is a 2004 drama film, directed by Chazz Palminteri. The film was set in New York City.

Noel is a perplexing and mystifying Christmas movie about people who have trouble making interpersonal connections. It stars Susan Sarandon as Rose, a single, childless woman "over 40" who keeps trying to reconnect with her hospitalized mother who has Alzheimer's and does not talk to or recognize anyone. She lies to escape an encounter with an old school friend and accepts a date with the most desirable man in her office building on Christmas Eve. Despite his correct manners, he is cold and manipulative, and when she invites him to her apartment after dinner out, she rejects his advances.

Meanwhile, a jealous cop (Paul Walker) with a pretty and pregnant fiancée (Penélope Cruz) assaults her gay tree-decorator friend and has a mysterious encounter with Artie (Alan Arkin), an older man running a restaurant who seems to know him. Artie thinks the cop is the reincarnation of his wife, who ran away (and was killed in a car crash) the night Artie killed a man in a jealous rage.

It all gets tied together when we discover that the man (Robin Williams) Rose met in the room across from her mother was having an out of the body experience (i.e., was a ghost) and saved her life when she went down to the river contemplating suicide. Like Clarence in A Wonderful Life, he'd have to throw himself in to save her.

[edit] Plot summary

The film revolves around five strangers who are linked together by a series of events on Christmas Eve. Rose (played by Sarandon) is a widowed editor who is caring for her mother, who has Alzheimer's. Nina (played by Cruz) and Mike (played by Walker) are a young couple who are on the verge of breaking up due to Mike's increasingly jealous behavior. Artie (played by Arkin) is an old waiter who searches for his deceased wife (named Angelina) every Christmas Eve. Finally, Jules is a young man who deliberately damages his hand so he can attend a Christmas party in the emergency room, as that was the only happy memory of his childhood.

The film begins on Christmas Eve morning, with the Daughters of St. Paul Choir, singing Angels We Have Heard on High. Rose is walking down the New York street carrying Christmas gifts. She walks by a Christmas shop catching her eye on an angel ornament. After going into the shop and buying it she continues to walk down the street bumping into Debbie Carmichael, an old high school acquaintance. Debbie tells Rose all about marrying her high school sweetheart and having four "amazing" kids. When asked about herself, Rose tells Debbie she's married to a lawyer on Wal Street named Hal with twin girls, Britney and Ashley. She then goes on to tell her she has to prepare a Christmas dinner for thirty-five people. The women say their goodbye's and Rose continues to walk to the hospital where her mother is staying.

The second character that is introduced is Jules. He goes to the front desk of the hospital asking if there will be a Christmas party. The nurse responds with "I beg your pardon. This is a hospital, not Radio City Music Hall". Jules asks if they usually have a party and the nurse says only for patients then asks if he's planning on being one which Jules says, "You never know".

Rose is seen walking down a hallway of the hospital towards her mother's room. Walking passed all the other patient's rooms who have family members exchanging gifts and happily talking. She stops in front of her mother's room and looks into the room across the hall to see no family members or Christmas decorations in that patient's room. Rose greets her mother telling her about her day and running into Debbie Carmichael where we learn she doesn't actually have a lawyer husband or twin girls. She then tries to feed her mother who hasn't eaten all day but refuses to eat. The angel she had bought for her mother Rose decided to hang in the patient's room across the hall who she thought didn't have any visitors. But upon going into the room she meets a stranger (Robin Williams) who she talks with for a few moments before leaving.

In the next shot a police car is driving down the New York street driven by Mike Riley. He's following his fiancee Nina down the street and pulls off to the side to get her attention. He offers to give her a ride and take her "around the block" but she tells him that's where she's having lunch. After he convinces her he'll bring her right back she gets into the car with him and they drive off to their apartment. The next shot they are in bed where Nina tries to get Mike to dance with her but her refuses. Rose is now in her office where she works as an author of children's books. Her assistant tells her about the messages she took for her. One from her sister saying she'll be staying with Buddhist monks for the holidays, another from her shrink saying she cancelled the appointment because her husband surprised her with a trip to Paris, and her ex-husband asking if she would like to go to Connecticut with his wife and "two perfect children". Her assistant tries to get Rose to go out or sleep with Marco (Daniel Sunjata), a young man who works in the same building with them. But Rose says he is too young for her.

Mike, who is late meeting up with his partner Dennis (Sonny Marinelli), gives into dancing after watching Nina dance for him. Mike then drops Nina off at her office where it's clear that Mike gets jealous over the slightest things. Like Nina's new earrings, that were a gift given to her by a male colleague. She leaves to go into her office as Mike watches her enter the building and see her hugging a man. He watches for a few moments, obviously getting jealous, before he drives off. Meanwhile Rose talks with Marco who sets up a date for the evening. Jules and his friend Glen discuss Christmas and money that Jules owes while eating at a diner. Glen tells Jules to meet him later to see a man called Arizona (Chazz Palminteri). Mike walks into the diner to meet up with Dennis where they meet a strange man, Artie, who comes off as "having a thing" for Mike. When Mike goes to pay for their coffee Artie asks whether to meet up where Mike, with his hot temper, yells that he doesn't know him. Then Dennis threatens to lock Artie up if he keeps it up.

Rose goes on her date with Marco who she takes back to her house and things take a wrong turn when Marco tries to kiss her. He ends up leaving, saying that it's her that has a problem. Meanwhile Nina and the man she'd been hugging before are back at the apartment decorating the Christmas tree, which is a surprise for Mike. She tells him that her stomach is acting up and she's stressed out as Mike walks through the door, see's them together, and takes it the wrong way. He then pushes the man into the Christmas tree, asking what was going on between them. Nina says they are just friends and brings up other times he has gotten jealous over other men looking at her. It turns out her friend is actually gay and a tree decorator. With that Nina leaves the house and goes to one of her family members home. Where Rose ends up "accidentally" crashing their Christmas party. Mike back at the apartment sees Artie outside his window on the street. He goes out asking him to leave but eventually agree's on talking to him for ten minutes. Rose and Nina are now at a bar talking about how Nina might be pregnant but isn't sure and about Mike's jealousy but she loves him very much and cant leave him.

Back at Mike's apartment he's talking with Artie with a small interupption from Dennis and two girls he brought over. Mike has them leave and afterwards Artie tells Mike he's a reincarnation of his wife. This freaks Mike out and throws him out of the apartment telling him to stay away. Nina comes back to the apartment to talk to Mike and tell him to let go of his jealousy. When she mistakenly says some guys try to get her into bed when Mike said that's all other men want from her. He stops listening to anything she said and just focused on who the men were who were trying to get her into bed. Nina becomes frustrated and leaves with Mike following behind her saying he was sorry. Outside Dennis is talking with Artie who had been waiting outside the apartment. Nina leaves in a taxi as Mike is trying to make her stay, it infuriates him and he blames it on Artie. He yells for him to stay away and grabs a hold of Artie who then has a heart attack. Back at the bar Rose entered the contest of worst Christmas. She tells of a miscarriage she had on Christmas which leads her to win a small Christmas tree she brings to her mother's hospital.

Mike is now at the hospital waiting for any word on how Artie's condtion is. Rose contemplates suicide when she is met by the stranger back at the hospital. His name is Charlie and she takes him back to her home after he complains of a stomach ache. They talk the whole night and he spends the night with her to help her get through the night. He reveals to her that he knows what her mother thinks and she eventually asks him to leave. Back at the hospital Mike is waiting for Artie to wake up. Where Mike had learned early from Artie's son that he does it every Christmas to a stranger about being his reincarnated wife. He learned Artie was a jealous man just like himself and his wife died in a car accident when she left the house after one of Artie's jealousy rages. Mike realizing that could be him and Nina changes his ways and says, as his reincarnated wife, that he forgives him.

Nina back at her family's house takes a pregnancy test when Mike comes over to talk. She goes outside to talk to him where he tries to convince her he's a changed man. And tells her that if she didn't want to get married anymore or loved him anymore that he'd have to accept it. He leaves to go back to the apartment where he opens the gift Artie had given him earlier. It's a glass angel, the same one Mike and Nina had on their tree that was broken, Nina comes by to give Mike his gift. Which is that she's pregnant. Jules who had his arm broken by Arizona had been in the hospital all night with no party. The doctor's fear he would hurt himself even more after the nurse he'd talk to earlier made him see a psychatrist in the hospital. He tells the psychatrist his father would abuse him as a kid and the party he'd gone to at the hospital when he was a kid was because his father broke his nose. But his mother had never come to get him. The shrink tells him it was probably because she was saving him for anymore abuse in the house. After he calls and talks with his mother you see him walk from the hospital with a smile on his face. Rose is at the hospital also who is trying to find Charlie. She learns from the nurse that Charlie is actually the patient who had no visitors. Rose walks into the room where she sits on the bed and holds his hand. Saying that he's not alone anymore.....

  • Tagline: Miracles are closer than you think.

[edit] Main cast

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