If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This movie has bad audio, bad writing, and no black or non whites. It's NEW YORK CITY! In 2015! All i see are whinywhite liberals complaining about their liberal arts classes and other boring stuff when there are tons of homeless people outside starving and freezing to death! How is there only 1 non white person in this whole cast? I'm half black and don't like modern movies with all white casts. I say modern because period films may not have a lot of diversity as those were the times. But a dumb movie made in 2015, in a democrat state like new york has almost no blacks or non whites, is strange. White liberals(the people who made this movie and star in it) are calling trump racist, but i keep seeing a trend that these same self righteous types have few black friends and in hollywood, the ones that have power to cast, seldom cast non whites in these stale comedies. This movie is so bad. I have to turn volume all the all the way up and it still sounds muffled. And all i hear are boring white liberals complaining about their perfect families and useless art history majors in college. I bet all these characters(not actors) are unemployed and protesting all the time. If there was a sequel to this garbage movie. I've never heard of this movie until it came on my television. 2015 in NYC, and only 1 Black person in the whole movie?! How can white liberals(the same ones that made this film and act in it) call everybody racist, but be okay with an all white movie like this?! The casting is unbelievable. Or is this film trying to convey that white liberals truly have no diverse friends? The writing and casting and audio all ruin the movie for me.

Don't waste your time, clearly the writers didn't! This movie pretends to put diverse people in a interesting situation and promises to deliver something entertaining. We set a low bar, expecting little more than a lifetime Christmas special. But this movie tripped over that bar on its way to awful! It fails! One black character and a horrible caricature of Latin characters clutching their statues of Mary and delivering tamales, are what passes for diversity.. The ending ties up no loose ends what so ever! The only reason we continued to watched this movie was find out the answer to the riddle about the wine bottle (spoiler alert: push the cork in- there, now YOU don't have to watch it! ) Elevator 1: leering creep and terrified girl. This isn't the start of a romcom, it's a horror movie. The photographer so pushes boundaries that he could easily be arrested in 49 states. She's says her name is Ann, and he immediately takes liberties with it calling her "Annie". Tell you daughters to run, not walk, away from this guy! Elevator 2: weird group of mall goers. What husband doesn't wait for his wife at a hospital. There's no pay off for tattoo guy and the jilted musician with the matching tattoo in elevator 3! OCD guy tries to get tall to impress one of the ditzes, but then who shows up on the bench at the end, with the nervous musician from elevator 3- is she his wife? How do they even know each other? And the art docent, what on earth is he babbling about?! Elevator 3: The musicians, this has the most potential, but what adult musicians would behave like a middle school band, with a gun! ? (Who farted? whoever smelt it dealt it! ) The unrequited love pay off between two musicians, where did that come from? Why doesn't the violinist woman want to play silent night, what's her story? The film makers never tell it!Elevator 4: The hospital- what should be a hallmark hall of fame story gets completely ruined by a pair orderlies acting like 12 year old boys. I wanted the doctor to bitch slap them. He was too busy denying the existence of God and arguing with nurse angel about her revelations and the color of a dying woman's car (hey, filmmakers no one but no one in NYC has a car! ) . Then the patient wakes up, learns her fate, tells them she doesn't plan to tell her husband, but he will probably figure it out when she starts to smell like old fish! This one wraps up with the doctor offering a half hearted prayer (hey, filmmaker- where's the damn miracle cure!? ) and an orderly pedaling off in his urine soaked scrubs (they launder and replace these in the hospital for free, dude! ) Elevator 5: Solving the worlds energy crisis! A pair of employees, boss and underling who the boss just fired whip up the solution to deliver power to the whole wide world, on an elevator, and there was peace on earth. Two of the better actors, but no payoff since we learn that the employee is the BF of the girl trapped with the sexual predator in elevator 1 (is she poor or not?) and the neglected son of the Patrick Stewart's business man, and we never see him reunite with either of them! Which brings us to elevator 6: Patrick Stewart, the reason you all came to this movie! He must have read the soliloquy and thought it might be good practice, or maybe the filmmakers had incriminating photos of him, either way, a great actor with a mouth full of crap writing! Worse than his character and the ridiculous things he says is that the filmmakers never resolve his story. After his come to Jesus moment in an outdoor elevator (where he could have easily been removed by a crane) He's screaming at bikers from his limo, never finds the son he realized he's ignored, and shakes and mutters at the mall rats laughing as they cross the street. Don't even get us started on the total suspension of disbelief about the actual elevator/fire/power crisis. All of it is too ridiculous to even get started on. The bottom line is this movie is so bad that one feels that what really happened is the filmmakers shot footage, then edited it, and everything that was left on the floor got made into THIS movie! Don't waste your time or put another dime in the pocket of the people who thought this was entertainment or art or whatever!

This movie has a really cool indie vibe, which is something not often seen in family Christmas movies. Very cool style. Also, the acting was awesome! A really diverse cast. Steven John Shepherd in particular stood out. It was a thoughtful film that the whole family can enjoy. The music was also great. The film contains some very cool renditions of Christmas classics. I haven't seen a Christmas movie this unique in a long time. Because of the way it was advertised I thought it would be a lot like love actually or valentines day, but it wasn't at all. It was also nice to see a Christmas movie with normal people. It was an overly dramatic dysfunctional family Christmas movie, but it also wasn't an overly sensitized hallmark Christmas movie. It is a very broad film. The comedy is broad, as is the drama, as is the spirituality. It gives everything a fair shot, and you should too. Hope you love it as much as I did!

"Deus ex machina" can be clearly read on the side of the copier repair van at the beginning of the movie(and the trailer), but as opposed to it being the divine intervention plot device to save the protagonist, in Christmas Eve it is the basis of a story where we see God manifested in multiple ways, all from the machine.The story is slow at times, the dialogue is fair, but has its moments. This is a story designed to make you feel connected to the people around you and maybe even care about a stranger. It is not an action movie, it is not a romantic comedy, it is not 90 minutes of CGI. You have to engage in a little suspension of reality for the given situation and spend the night in an elevator with the characters that have normal lives and experience everyday outcomes.Not the best Christmas movie I've seen. I would have liked more more time focused on Patrick Stewart's character, but in fairness I've never seen anything where I thought it had too much Patrick Stewart. In the end I took my children(10&4yo) and had less to worry about in the content than I do with prime time television. For that I am immensely thankful and will watch this with my family again next Christmas.