It's a wonderful Life If You're a Family Man (The Family Man (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	The Family Man (DVD)
Date:	06/07/02 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice performances from the leads, Entertaining, Touching at times

Disadvantages: Has a lot to live up to

It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) was a seminal moment in Hollywood movie making that established a common theme that’s been there ever since. The American dream seems, at times, a supplicant to the idea that a life with a conscience should override any desire for an individual to make their fortune. The Family Man clearly draws on Frank Capra’s work of genius and so sets itself an impossibly high standard to attain.
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The main cast:

Nicolas Cage .... Jack Campbell
Téa Leoni .... Kate Reynolds
Don Cheadle .... Cash
Jeremy Piven .... Arnie
Saul Rubinek .... Alan Mintz
Josef Sommer .... Peter Lassiter
Makenzie Vega .... Annie Campbell
Jake Milkovich .... Josh Campbell
Ryan Milkovich .... Josh Campbell
Lisa Thornhill .... Evelyn Thompson
Harve Presnell .... Big Ed

Cert:12
Running Time: 125 mins
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The notion that Corporate America is in some way corrupt and unwholesome seems embedded in the original Dickensian concept of Scrooge. After all, Hollywood represents the epitome of glamour and money whilst seemingly wrestling with all of those metaphors representing the more moralistic outlook of a significant proportion of the movers and shakers in the film industry. Alternatively, you could be forgiven for being a little cynical in suggesting that such politically correct posturing in script lines will draw the crowds in and leave them with a warm glow (and hence part with lots of money).

Essentially, The Family Man is about a man called Jack Campbell. The opening scene is of he and his then girlfriend, Kate (Tea Leoni) at the airport. He is due to leave for London on a 12 month placement which should further his career. Kate pleads with him not to go fretting that she has a bad feeling about it. After a moments thought, Jack leaves anyway.

13 years pass and by now, Campbe
ll is a high powered investment broker who has all the trappings of a hedonistic existence i.e. model girlfriends, Ferrari, highly paid job and so on. Christmas Eve is here and Campbell’s company is on the verge of one of the biggest corporate mergers in US history. The board are ensconced around the table and it soon emerges that they’ll be working late. When challenged about finishing early, as it’s Christmas Eve, Campbell laughs it off a la Scrooge insisting that his minions focus on the up and coming deal.

Having finished late in the day, Campbell visits a drug store only to be caught up in the middle of a fractious moment involving a black man with a gun. The shopkeeper, having refused to cash the lottery ticket of "Cash" (the black hoodlum) is saved by a rather noble Campbell who buys the ticket from Cash. Invited to walk with the antagonist it soon becomes clear that not all is as it seems as the ensuing conversation identifies Cash as some kind of angel (Clarence the angel from IAWL?) who determines to give Jack a glimpse of the life that might have been.

The inclusion of a falling snow is a nice touch for a mood change and Jack wakes to find himself waking in bed with Kate. Gone is his Ferrari, his job at the investment house and everything that was associated with his privileged life. In its place, he now has a wife, 2 kids and a job at the tyre plant. Nights in down town New York are replaced by nights out ten-pin bowling with the boys. The rest of the story deals with the dilemma of whether his new, seemingly mundane life can be a suitable and more morally acceptable future than the one he had before.

---Director & Cinematographer---
Brett Ratner ably directs Family Man. He does his best to move between drama and comedy catching moments of poignancy when needed. Dante Spinotti takes care of the cinematography. His is an impressive background including Last of the Mohicans and True Colors amongst
others.

---Musical score---
The sound & musical back-up is provided by the impressive list of David Byrne, Danny Elfman, Chris Frantz, Gerry Harrison, Diane Warren and Tina Weyworth.

---Acting Performances---
Nicholas Cage is best known for his action roles. Gone in 60 seconds, Face Off and The Rock all seem to put him in the Bruce Willis mode of torn shirts cased with blood, toting guns at seemingly impossible odds. Like Willis, Family Man adds breadth to a possible typecasting, as Cage has to look to a range of emotions, which lend to the notion that he can be a sensitive actor. The scenes with the children show Cage in an expressive light and the exchange with Annie (Makenzie Vega) where he is changing the baby’s nappy to the bewilderment of his daughter is touching. The comedy element of the script comes into play with a faltering attempt at changing a dirty nappy to be greeted by a question about whether he really is their daddy. In the hope that somebody else realises that he is in a place he shouldn’t be, it turns out that Annie thinks that Campbell has been kidnapped by an alien spacecraft and returned only after some devious experimentation. This passage comes back to lend credibility to a scene at the finale tying together the story’s journey, telling the audience why things have worked out as they have.

Tea Leoni looks suitably stunning. Her flawless complexion and youthful disposition all add to the butter wouldn’t melt aura that she creates. The role of Kate is one of almost impossibly perfect intentions amplified by her job as a non-profit lawyer and all-round good person. She looks and is the ideal mother and wife.

Don Cheadle’s part as the angle is somewhat cameo with only bit-part incursions into the story. Both Mission to Mars and Traffic gave him a much larger opportunity to shine than did The Family Man but he convinces in the drug store scene and carries off the persona of
the hip angel with a reasonable amount of aplomb.

---What does this film say?---
Well as I said before, it sets itself an impossibly high standard to attain. IAWL is a movie revered across generations and it seems almost suicide like to try and update it.

There are times when the audience can be forgiven for being confused as to whether this is a comedy or a drama. Sure enough, there are some comedic touches but not enough to take you away from the serious notion that Campbell simply wants his old life back and spends a good deal of time railing against the hum drum daily struggle of every day Middle-America.

The intention of Family Man appears to be to give a feel-good factor which it does to a point but only if you can suspend belief once again that a high-powered, materialistic existence is really all that bad. I mean, after all, who is Hollywood to tell anyone how they should or shouldn’t live their life? The typically nuclear family is, maybe, what you'd expect of a movie script wanting to illustrate what is considers atypical. It's somewhat ironic that the huge success of cartoon creations like the Simpsons & Malcolm in the Middle with their idiosyncratic family lives have gone some way to proving that this sheep dipping of millions will almost certainly not represent the vast majority today.

To give the movie it’s due, the drama is well done to a large extent (writing credits to David Diamond & David Weissman). Saul Rubineck’s role as Alan Mintz provides a nice parallel to run against the main story line giving something of a sub-plot. He is the pussy cat who wants to go home to his wife early on Christmas Eve but is catapulted into the character that Campbell would have continued to be had he not entered an alternative lifestyle (Mintz goes on to run the show in Campbell’s place assuming Campbell had never entered the Investment firm). Alan Mintz ends up demonstrating the kind of aggr
essive, Micheal Douglas in Wall Street kind of role that would come with a pinstripped suit and power napping.

As ever, the acid test is the one involving a hankie and my good lady was suitably moved towards the end as a further set of tissues bit the dust. For lovers of romance, the film endears itself with some charm-laden exchanges between the screen lovers. These are reasonably complex at times typified by Cage mimicking falling asleep when he has his first chance to make love to his "new" wife. This suggests a moral flux raging in Campbell that maintains its presence throughout the story.

---Recommendation---
Despite the various criticisms then, yes, I would recommend this movie. It has a lot to offer in terms of entertainment and I liked the lead roles who both played their parts well (Tea Leoni won the Saturn award for best actress). It won’t take a genius to work out how the story ends but then it’s nice to have a happy ending from time to time.

The overriding notion was charming and well meaning. I honestly do struggle when I think Hollywood is on its soapbox again but, notwithstanding, I happen to agree with a lot of the values the film is advocating. It possibly loses a star from the final rating when you think of it in terms of a comparison with It’s a Wonderful Life but then how on Earth can you subrogate a masterpiece?

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend (I know Sue)

Marandina

Notes:

DVD is available from Amazon.co.uk at £18.99.
Edition Details:
• Region 2 encoding (Europe, Middle East & Japan only)
• PAL, Widescreen
• ASIN: B000057X1R
• Catalogue Number: EDV9066

Also showing on NTL/Sky Movies at the moment

Official website at http:www.family-man.com/

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