Cult favorite Abel Ferrara directed and co-wrote this story set in New York City in 1993, before Mayor Rudy Giuliani's much-publicized crusade against street crime put a dent in semi-public drug dealing in the city. It's a few days before Christmas, and a Latin American couple living on the city's Upper East Side (Lillo Brancato Jr. and Drea de Matteo) are watching their daughter (Lisa Valens) perform in her school's holiday pageant. Afterward, the couple drop the child off with a babysitter and
set out to run some errands. They have two items on their agenda: get their daughter the doll she's been asking for (a nearly impossible task, since the toy has become the must-have item of the season), then head to their work space uptown, where they prepare and package heroin for street distribution. While the wife has her qualms about the ethics of drug dealing, both she and her husband know there's plenty of money to be made in heroin -- more than most Hispanic immigrants could make working legitimate jobs in New York -- and the business has been highly lucrative for them. The couple discovers one of their lower-level dealers may be talking to the police, but they soon have a bigger problem to deal with when the husband is lured to the Bronx by a fence who can get him the toy he's been looking for. The husband finds he's been lured into a trap, and a kidnapper (Ice-T) gives the wife less than a half hour to collect and pay a huge ransom, or her husband will be killed. As in Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, the audience never learns the names of most of the major characters in 'R Xmas; also like Bad Lieutenant (as well as King of New York and The New Rose Hotel), Ferrara invited pioneering gangster rapper Schooly-D to contribute to the film's score. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Once Ice-T sticks his mug in the window of the couple's BMW and begins haranguing the wife in bad stage dialogue, all credibility flies out the window.
Highlighted by a gritty style and an excellent cast, it's better than one might expect when you look at the list of movies starring Ice-T in a major role.
Good Ferrara film, and the first film to kick off my Xmas. The touching story of husband and wife drug dealers and the trials they encounter and lessons they learn over the holiday season. A story of family, love and charity...and sleazebags. Good performances, gritty atmosphere and typical (meaning great) Ferrara
direction make this a worthy addition to the Ferrara "dirtbag cinema" catalogue.
An understated Ferrara delight. An authentic look at a family attempting to make its way through the best schools, best shops, best homes by dealing drugs in NYC. I was completely surprised by this film. I had no expectations for this film. Soundtrack was also good. The addicted American Consumer strikes again.
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