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| COVER GALLERY |
| Film vitals |
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· Year: 2000
· Director: Brett Ratner
· Writers: David Diamond, David Weissman
· Cast: Nicolas Cage, Téa Leoni
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Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.de
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| Synopsis |
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Arrogant bachelor executive Jack Campbell falls asleep in his high-rise apartment on Christmas Eve, only to wake up the next morning . . . in his bedroom in the suburbs, having spent the last decade with the love of his life he'd left years before. Over the next few months, Jack adjusts to this alternate reality and begins to realize what his old life was missing.
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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71
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
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ATMOSPHERE
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GORE
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HUMOR
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SCARES
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TENSION
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There are some mild spoilers in this review, so if you're worried, don't read on.
In It's a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart played a man who was shown how the world would be poorer if he hadn't lived. In its descendant, The Family Man, Nicolas Cage plays a man who is shown how his life could be richer had he made different choices. Not nearly as blankly cozy and friendly as you might think, The Family Man features surprisingly off-center humor and moments of sublimely realistic discomfort. And an absolutely amazing performance from Téa Leoni; it's been too long since since she's been on screen. It isn't until the end that The Family Man hits an off-key note; without giving too much away, I have to say that it didn't sit well with me. To the filmmakers' credit, though, it was a smart choice, and acts to remind us that, though the results may be happy or sad, the choices we make are the choices we have to live with. While it's probably not destined to become a holiday classic, The Family Man is still a warmly done examination of the idea of lost chances, a concept that has swirled around Christmas since Charles Dickens penned A Christmas Carol.
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| RATING |
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There are choices in life that may be too big for any one of us, their consequences too drastic, their impact frightening, their scope smashing down our sense of self-reliance, our faculties to control the small part of the world we call our own - choices that seem irrevocable, irreversible, but essential; we may think we're happy having made them, but some short, big moment, we'll feel the emptiness, the horror of having made the wrong choice: And there may be nothing left to do, nothing left to change, what's done, is done, and cannot be made undone.
What if we somehow were given that chance? An alternate option, an option to start anew, or to change things? What would we be willing to sacrifice - what would we consider essential, what would we deem to be a life worth living? Would we be open for such a chance, would we see it if it suddenly allowed us a glimpse into what could have been - into what, possibly, should have been?
These are the things forminig the core of this movie, and the execution is marvellous. Nicolas Cage is brilliant as ever, but Téa Leoni does live up to his performance very well. The story has its twists and turns, asking the right questions, giving the right answers. All in all, this has been the right film for the holiday season, and a highlight of its year.
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