Schmaltzy

During a series of interviews, Franzen expressed ambivalence about Oprah’s endorsement—[…] that he had found a few of her choices in the past “schmaltzy” and “one-dimensional.”

“In France, it has the reputation of being a typically American mixture of clichés and of schmaltz,” he wrote in an email. “Clichés about us don’t interest us, and the French are not very schmaltzy.”

As well as singing a lively Christmas number for the first time in a film (a good use of his country music success), Sutherland shares a schmaltzy waltz with Wilson: “It was a bit foreign for both of us but I think we had fun.”