The new feature film Christmas Eve opens December 4 in 43 theaters nationwide, including 9 in Utah. Director Mitch Davis previously made the LDS missionary drama The Other Side of Heaven. It is an ensemble comedy, like Love Actually or Valentine’s Day, where the characters are in separate vignettes. Several groups are stuck in elevators during a power outage on Christmas Eve. Patrick Stewart and Jon Herder star. Larry King was one of the producers.
Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune. 2 stars. “Six subplots search in vain for deeper meaning in “Christmas Eve,” a wildly uneven holiday tale. When a delivery van crashes into a power conduit in Manhattan on Dec. 24, suddenly the power goes out and elevators in six buildings get stuck. A boorish executive (Patrick Stewart) is trapped alone in the unfinished building he’s overseeing. In a hospital, a surgeon (Gary Cole) and his nurse (Shawn Southwick King, wife of the film’s executive producer, Larry King) debate faith near the unconscious harpist they just operated on. Nearby, a just-fired tech guy (Jon Heder) is stuck with his now-former boss (Max Casella). Elsewhere, members of an orchestra (including Cheryl Hines and violinist Jenny Oaks Baker) bicker in tight quarters. A photographer (James Roday, from “Psych”) chats up a plain-Jane neighbor (Julianna Guill). And in a department store, two ditzy girls (Roxanne Cook, Margaret Clunie) encounter a snooty art expert (Steve John Shepherd) and a muscular Santa (Taylor James). Director Mitch Davis and co-writer Tyler McKellar veer unsteadily from comedy to drama and back, lurching among the six storylines in the hopes of an interconnected experience that never feels genuine.”
Josh Terry, Deseret News. 2.5 stars. ” The ensemble Christmas movie is nothing new. “Christmas Eve” tries to carve out its own niche in the genre by setting each of its vignettes in an elevator, and it’s a noble effort, but the results are mixed at best . . . It’s easy to diagnose the problem. There’s just too much going on. For about two-thirds of the film, whenever a scene cuts to one of the other elevators, your reaction is, “Oh, yeah, I’d forgotten about them.” The film is barely longer than 90 minutes, and by the time you add in the subplot about the guy in the repair van, your cinematic nutmeg is just too watered-down. You have to wonder what would have happened had director Mitch Davis decided to focus his efforts on one or two of these groups (even three would have been justified). “12 Angry Men” stuck us in a jury deliberation room with a dozen characters for an entire film, and it’s a classic piece of bottleneck cinema . . . Trim the excess, flesh out the rest, and “Christmas Eve” could be “that cool Christmas movie about the people in the elevator.” Davis deserves credit for putting a unique spin on a well-trod formula. But aside from a handful of high points, “Christmas Eve” only proves that like Christmas itself, a lot of something doesn’t always add up to a good something.”
Scott Renshaw, Salt Lake City Weekly. 1.5 stars. “In a world where Garry Marshall’s recent oeuvre exists, it’s hard to imagine there’s a more irritating way to throw random vignettes together and call them a movie . . . Predictably, there are a few ways in which these stories end up connected, though not in ways that make them any more interesting. And while they all exist on various points on the goofy-to-semi-serious spectrum, they offer virtually no insight, because they have the same problem so many similar movies have: Every character comes with exactly one character trait, and only so that the jerk can become nicer, the wallflower can become more confident, etc. If it’s trying in some way to promote focusing on What Really Matters this holiday season, it certainly taught me that I’d rather not waste time on vapid homilies.”
Sus Wloszczyna, Rogerebert.com. 1 star. “This clumsy ensemble piece revolves around some not very interesting people who get stuck in six elevators in sundry Manhattan buildings after a delivery van accident cuts the power off on Dec. 24. It fails to provide the sorts of human inter-connections and deep revelations for which director Mitch Davis seems to be striving. God might work in mysterious ways, but “Christmas Eve” barely works at all with its misbegotten mingling of supposed mirth (someone actually shoots off a pistol once or twice in one of the elevators just for kicks—yeehaw!) and tepid devotional drama . . . The most unexpected occurrence is the fact that somehow, someway, in a cast that is low on A-listers, the great Patrick Stewart might give the worst performance as a bellicose business tycoon who is left stranded all alone in the winter cold, trapped in a cage-like lift atop a skyscraper under construction . . Jon Heder, might give the best performance as a just-fired tech specialist who is forced to share the office elevator with the fantasy-football-obsessed jerk who canned him (Max Casella) . . . Oh, there is another surprise. Davis, who is also responsible for Mormon missionary drama “The Other Side of Heaven,” is rather timid about inserting many direct observations about religion into his script and instead forces us to infer what it means when several stuck characters are revealed to be related to those caught in different elevators. I am guessing it might have to do with it being a small world after all, or that fate, or some sort of Supreme Being, decided to teach these humans a lesson. The lesson I learned? If you want to make an uplifting film, you won’t get there with broken elevators.”
Variety. “Ho, ho, ho? No, not really. Truth to tell, “Christmas Eve” isn’t likely to make anyone feel exceptionally merry. Still, it remains modestly diverting from scene to scene as it details the interactions of disparate passengers stuck in six different New York elevators due to a night-before-Christmas power failure. If for no other reason, moviegoers and VOD viewers might remain interested to see, given early clues by writer-director Mitch Davis, if and how characters in separate locations are connected. And if that’s not enough, well, the movie can serve as undemanding home-screen amusement to enjoy while wrapping Christmas presents. Davis obviously aims to indicate a grand design to seemingly random events, and the presence of a higher power — probably God — capable of affecting human destinies. Indeed, he none-too-subtly tips off the audience early on when an accident involving a delivery truck emblazoned with the advertising slogan “Deux ex Machina” causes the outage that stalls the elevators . . . The performances are by and large adequate, but two actually are notable. Roday earns credit for making a character that could have come across as creepy seem likable, while Cole brings his A-game to the movie’s most emotionally potent scene, when the surgeon requests what even he might describe as divine inspiration: “We all need to know something. Not everything. But something.” After 85 or so minutes of buildup, the final scenes are somewhat disappointing, in that “Christmas Eve” provides no satisfying payoff for at least two hinted-at connections between characters. (It’s almost shocking when two people with seemingly complementary tattoos don’t wind up together.) Maybe some material got left on the cutting-room floor. Or maybe footage was lost during the flight back from Sofia, Bulgaria, where most of this set-in-Manhattan fable was filmed.”
Hollywood Reporter. “There’s an important lesson to be learned from the new ensemble film Christmas Eve. If a film’s opening credit reads “Presented by Larry King,” run screaming for the hills. The venerable talk show host and his wife, Shawn King, are among the producers of this cinematic trifle that proves yet again that Christmas is responsible for more bad movies than any other holiday on the planet . . . As the long, long, long night breaks into day, absolutely nothing of interest happens, unless you include the orchestra musicians playing an impromptu rendition of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Alternately attempting to tug at the heartstrings and to garner laughs, the film written and directed by Mitch Davis (The Other Side of Heaven) strains for thematic depth by ultimately revealing previously unknown relationships between the characters in the different elevators. Since we haven’t come to care about any of them, none of it matters. Although it’s set in Manhattan, the film was shot entirely in Bulgaria. Amazingly, not only do the exterior locations look completely inauthentic but the interior elevator shots do as well.”
Los Angeles Times. “”Christmas Eve” takes place in New York City, with six groups of stereotypically obnoxious characters getting stuck for hours in elevators after a service van runs over an electrical box, severing a power line. These self-absorbed New Yorkers uncharacteristically strike up lengthy, insufferable conversation. Scenes from the six elevators ranked from least to most exasperating: a pompous real-estate developer delivering a soliloquy of verbal abuse; a boss barely tolerating an employee he’s laying off; a dying cardiac liposarcoma patient insisting that her staunchly atheist doctor should pray; a computer programmer and an art curator humoring three uncultured dimwits; seven melodramatic musicians from an orchestra getting hysterical; and finally, a man aggressively harassing a woman to show her how truly beautiful she is . . . Like many films of this ilk, the characters and stories are interconnected. But it’s probably some kind of a record that writer-director Mitch Davis has managed to cram more than 20 characters who are so vapid and annoying into one ensemble piece. Who knew a movie seemingly meant to spread holiday cheer could be so off-putting in an almost sadistic way?”
Mitch Davis replied, “Audiences LOVE the movie but the critics have not been kind because of the movie’s faith component. Go figure.”
Meridian Magazine interview with director Mitch Davis. “My next movie is going to be about the assassination of Joseph Smith based on Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill’s book The Carthage Conspiracy (see carthageconspiracy.com). I started it three years ago, but put it temporally on the shelf to make this Christmas movie. But that’s a movie I want to do that will open the doors for others to follow.”
The Cultural Hall Podcast interview with Davis.
KSL article about the film. Trailer.
Don Verdean, written and directed by Jared Hess, will open next weekend.
So this is a bit derivative of New Year’s Eve which is derivative of Love Actually. Overall, it’s got a great cast, and at times, a film that captures your attention. Parts of it are a bit trite and predictable, but if you get over that, it’s an entertaining film that is worth watching. If you don’t have high expectations, it’s a fun film that is enjoyable to watch any time of year.
The reviews quoted here were pretty bad. But but the AML film award judge last year put it on his list of finalists for the award. I asked about it, and he said “I understand the reviews, but they weren’t fair. Christmas movies are hard to make; there is a lot working against them from the get-go. Christmas Eve is a strong film.” Eric Samuelsen mentioned it on Facebook a couple of days ago. He said, “It’s gotten rotten scores on Rotten Tomatoes, but I liked it quite a bit. Religious themes nicely handled, some interesting characters. Also some less compelling characters, but the movie was certainly watchable. Recommended.”