Matthew Irmas

Edie (Jennifer Tilly) is heading to Reno, Nevada, "Divorce Capital of the Nation," where she plans to get a quickie divorce so she can marry her new boyfriend. There, she meets Pen (Stockard Channing), a middle-aged woman ending a long marriage to a philandering husband (Stuart Wilson). The two women soon discover that they have much more in common than their yearning to be free from their failed relationships.

A Corol Christmas follows the basic plot of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, but the story has been modernized. The traditional "Scrooge" character is a talk show host named Carol.

It's hard to make this not sound like a soap opera because the framework is there. But it's actually a pretty good drama with inventive dialogue and details that give it depth. The story centers on a house in the Beverly Hills where the characters revolve in and out of to & from the party circuit. Fisher Stevens as Alex Midnight is the most interesting character, drawing Sandra Bullock's character to him while simultaneously holding him at arm's length. The duel party sequence is excellent.