Winter Views...

New Year's Eve- 3 stars ***

I went to see this yesterday with my friends to get us in the Christmassy spirit. I didn't really know what it was going to be like, having not seen an advert, but within a few scenes I could tell it was going to be a New Year's Eve version of Love Actually, in that it involves lots of different characters, each with their own storylines, that are somehow all linked.

You couldn't complain at the cast; it had everyone from Halle Berry to Ashton Kutcher and Robert De Niro to Sarah Jessica Parker, as well as teen favourites Zac Efron (who I must admit, looked pretty hot!) and Lea Michele, and they all did their jobs well. Rather than write 4 paragraphs about the different stories, I'll condense it into bulletpoints:

• There are two couples competing to have the first midnight baby to win $25,000 played by Jessica Biel, Seth Meyers, Sarah Paulson and Til Schweiger.


• Ingrid (Michelle Pfeifer) is a quiet secretary who finally bites the bullet and quits her belittling job, and sets off with a courier (Zac Efron) to fulfil a list of resolutions before midnight.


• Efron's sister SJP is having issues wth her teenage daughter Abigail Breslin, as she seeks her first NYE kiss. SJP herself meets up with a mysterious man she met the year before (Josh Duchamel) at midnight, after thy made a pact to do so if they still thought of each other.


• Robert De Niro is a cancer patient who is bed bound and waiting to die. His daughter played by Hilary Swank (who is in charge of the New York ball drop) comes to visit him last minute so that they can see the New Year in on the roof, as is their tradition.


• His nurse Halle Berry is an army wife, who has a very emotional Skype conversation towards the end of the film with her husband.


• Caterer Laura (Katherine Heigl) is in charge of a massive party, but is being pestered by her ex Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi) to get back together after he left her a year previously.


• Jensen's backup singer (Lea Michele) gets trapped in a lift with waster Ashton Kutcher (Efron's flatmate), and the pair realise they have a lot in common. She has to try to race to get to the gig on time, and after Kutcher follows her with her bracelet that she left behind, they get together.

There were some plotlines that were more interesting than others, as in any film, and a few cheesy singing moments from Bon Jovi and Lea Michele made it a bit cringeworthy, but overall a decent watch, and definitely got all my friends and I a bit tearful and feeling festive ready for Christmas
.