The 2011 time capsule
Watching this now feels like looking at a museum exhibit of the early 2010s. It was the peak of the "holiday ensemble" subgenre where the goal wasn't to tell a coherent story, but to fit as many A-listers as possible into a two-hour window. Critics were famously brutal to this movie, with Rotten Tomatoes critics giving it a measly 7%. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a New Year's resolution you've already forgotten by January 2nd.
Tonal whiplash
The main issue you’ll run into is the jarring shifts in mood. One minute you're watching a goofy race to be the first person to give birth at midnight, and the next you're in a somber hospital room with a terminal patient. It tries to hit every emotional beat on the keyboard at once, and the result is mostly noise. If your teen is sensitive to medical drama or grief, those scenes feel much heavier than the rest of the fluffy, rom-com energy.
Better ways to count down
If you have a kid who actually enjoys the "intertwining lives" format, they might find this tolerable as background noise while scrolling through their phone. But if you want a movie that actually captures the spirit of the holiday without the corporate sheen, check out our list of 8 New Year's Eve Movies That Won't Make You Cringe Watching with Your Teen.
The specific friction here is the runtime. At 117 minutes, it overstays its welcome. Most of the subplots—like the one where two people are stuck in an elevator—could have been five-minute sketches. By the time the ball actually drops in the film, you'll likely feel like you've lived through the entire year twice. It’s a slog disguised as a party.
Who is it for?
This is strictly for the "completionist" viewer. If you’ve already seen the director's other holiday-themed ensemble films and you just need to check the box, go for it. Otherwise, the IMDb score of 5.6 is a pretty accurate warning. It’s a movie made of clichés that were already tired in 2011. If your family is looking for a meaningful cinematic experience to start the year, this isn't the one. But if you want to play "spot the celebrity" for two hours while you wait for the real midnight, it serves that very narrow purpose.