'R Xmas (2001)

The Worst Film Ever

As Good As It Gets

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie is a good example of the independent American cinema. And on the same time it's a Christmas tale, a little different from the usual stuff. It's Christmas! A walk on the Central Park, some last minute shopping and a trip to the tree on the Rockfeller Center. A family, like so many others, prepares to celebrate Christmas. It's a Latin family, of immigrants or sons of immigrants, that came to America searching for a better life. But to achieve the American dream only one occupation is offered to them: the drugs traffic. They do the drug deal as any other family business: on a big glass table, the husband cuts and blends the cocaine and fills the small bags. The uncle seals the bags while another relative puts the mark. But another part of the business happens on the streets and there, the gangs rule. When the husband is kidnapped the wife's life stars to spin around. Abel Ferrara is the author of provocative films like Bad Lieutenant or Driller Killer. And in this film he tries to provoke us once more. 'R Xmas is a kind of moral tale, without a final lesson, but suggesting we think about this little story. Yes, because it doesn't happen much in this movie. We are presented to the daily life of a family, his way of life is exposed to us and then, suddenly, everything is threatened by a sudden and brutal happening: the husband is kidnapped. In the end, he is saved, but the situation is by no means defined. The two leading actors do a sound performance. Drea de Matteo and Lillo Brancato are very convincing in their roles of caring parents and on the same time, drug dealers. Ice-T is also good, in a character who is at the same time, menacing and moral. It's a pity that in the end, the moral message (keep the drugs out of the streets)is hardly related to a dirty cop. In conclusion, it's a good movie, but not an excellent one. Ferrara builds a fiction about the presence of evil and the possibility or will of redemption. Another chapter in his saga of catholic dispair. We hope he can take a project which allows him to develop more of his themes or renew his career by a radical change of course. As a Portuguese critic said, he may direct a sequel of Harry Potter, in which Harry could be tormented by images of Christ, who lead him to question himself about the practice of magic and the obedience to the Bible, for example.

possible spoiler.... i thought this was a great movie and i wasn't surprised that this was a true story. it's about a family who are drug dealers at night but during the day they seem to be normal loving parents. the plot is somewhat thin but that don't really matter in this movie, it just tends to be boring at one point or another. a few people kidnap the father and the wife go frantic but she especially is very surprised when she findz out who the kidnappers are. so was i, i never expected them to be that kind of people. it's a twist. :)

The whole movie seemed to suffer from poor editing - every scene seemed to take forever to unfold and when they did, I felt like I had waited a long time for very little to happen. I guess I missed the whole point of the movie - either that or there wasn't one.

"R Xmas" peers into the lives of a middle class married-with-kid family of narco-distributors during the Christmas holiday season. There's no story here - just a disjointed collection of events. Ferrara seems to get off on the juxtaposition of the holidays and home life with narcotics peddling in NYC, jumping back and forth between each. The players appear to be improv'ing and adlibing now and then making for an unconvincing watch. Overall a poor effort not worth the time. (D)