Saturday, December 23, 2006

Christmas movie review: A Perfect Day

Rating: B

A Perfect Day is yet another movie that is only incidentally a Christmas one. It is based on a book by Richard Paul Evans, author of Christmas drivel like The Christmas Box and Timepiece, and tells the story of a man (I guess like Evans himself probably) who loses his job, decides to finally write that book he's been working on and soon finds himself a very successful author. And, along with his newfound fame and money, he also becomes kind of a jerk. He is never home as he has one huge non-stop book tour and starts to treat his family like crap. He goes from devoted family man to asshat in about three days. However, just as you begin to think there is nothing redeemable about him anymore, he meets a stranger (an angel?) who informs him his days are numbered. Thinking he's going to die, the main character kind of realizes what an ass he's been and starts to remember what's important in life and returns to the man he once was.

Overall, yes, it's a little hokey (of course!) and has a good cast (Rob Lowe is the main character, Paget Brewster his wife, Frances Conroy his agent, Christopher Lloyd the stranger), but I didn't really enjoy it. The portion of the movie where he becomes a jerk seems to be about 1 hour and 40 minutes long while the redemption part seems to be about 20 minutes long. It just seemed rushed towards the end and while I understood the twist at the end (regarding the stranger), it just didn't make enough sense to me. I'll take a miraculous turnaround but I'm not so convinced that this one is for keeps.

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