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Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This movie can only be understood in the context of the Argentine situation at the time. The year 1999 was the last of Carlos Menem's presidency. Menem's regime was an unqualified disaster, not unlike Boris Yeltsin's tenure in Russia. Free market policies were applied with a vengeance, dictated by international organizations like the IMF and the World Bank. Corruption was rife, state assets were liquidated at bargain prices and debts (mostly fraudulent) incurred by private banks were "nationalized" by the government. Social services were starved of funds or privatized, and unemployment soared. The post-Menem government was no improvement and the economy careened towards implosion, which occurred at the end of 2001 under the weight of an unsustainable foreign debt. It was a time of despair, reflected in this relentlessly dark film which has been absurdly described a "comedy". Even the title, "Felicidades", a greeting used in Argentina for holidays (Christmas in this case) is a sinister joke.This said, the movie is not entirely satisfactory and the script has weaknesses. The constant frustrations experimented by all characters are germane to the subject but become tiresome after a while; in fact, there seems to be a general inability to make even the simplest decisions. The ransacking of an apartment by policemen/thieves seems illogically stretched out; why not take the loot and run? Are the neighbor and two witnesses really necessary? Is it so difficult to dispose of a dead dog at night in a big city? And so on.There are also strengths in this film, among them an unfailing ear for dialog and excellent direction of actors. This is the only movie (except for shorts) by director Lucho Bender. His promise was truncated by his untimely death in 2004 at the age of 46.

"Felicidades" is a great movie, overlooked by its poor merchandising and the unknown nature of the director, which is an important propeller. The movie talks about people lost in a city that vanishes for one day, in Christmas Eve. Some are trying to get to their families, some do not have any. Some are finding them, some are in a rush, everyone is looking for another one.This choral story goes around presenting extravagances and eccentricities, and funny but road-less characters. The city is dark, but not as dark in "Evil". As dark in lonely, when all lights shut off and you are the only one still awake.The movie is fantastic, smart and coated by a script flowing on true, pure human feelings. The loneliness that it transmits is impressive. The unreceptive echoes, the subdued lights, the empty roads. It seems that in every character's life, this Sad Side on Christmas will last forever.

It has ups and downs. Extremely good moments, and moments that you ask yourself what is the story trying to tell you. Some moments of the best acting Argentina has ever given (Alfredo Casero as a `buchón') and some of the most boring.Nevertheless it is worth seeing it. It helps you think about the loneliness during Christmas time and the light relationships of our times.It is a modern tango story (without tangos) but with the same taste in the mouth.

FELICIDADES is Argentina's Y2K Oscar submission for Best Foreign Film. Director Lucho Bender, who also participated in the screenwriting, was tired of Christmas films in which everything works out, and FELICIDADES is his antidote. A Mitzvah entertainer, a novelist, his girlfriend, a doctor, a wheelchair bound man, a father out looking for a last-minute present - all are tied together without necessarily knowing it, both by circumstances that bring their lives to intersection, but more so by longing. The pace is fast, the characters engaging, and in the end, there remains the promise of better days to come.