|
Year
: 2000
Director:
Brett Ratner.
Starring:
Nicolas Cage, Tea Leoni,
Don Cheadle. |
The
Family Man
The
missing link between Its A Wonderful Life and
A Christmas Carol.
The
story surrounds Jack Campbell, and commences with
him at the airport about to set off to London to
begin his business career. His girlfriend
Kate, asks him to forget his career in order that
they can be together. Jack leaves Kate standing
there with the promise that he will return for
her in 12 months. We next pick up the story 13
years later to the present where Jack is now a
career minded singleton and a powerful Wall Street
executive who his brow beating his staff into work
through Christmas to conclude a merger deal. A
couple of strange things happen, he is advised
by his secretary that Kate (who he hasn't spoken
to or thought about in many years) had rung in
to speak to him, then he has a odd discussion with
a street punk which ends in Jack telling the punk
that "I have everything I have ever wanted" to
which the punk laughs. He returns home to his plush
New York penthouse bachelor pad and goes to sleep.
Waking up the next morning (Christmas morning)
he finds himself in bed with his old girlfriend
Kate, in a cramped and cluttered New Jersey bedroom,
with a baby crying in the next room and another
child calling him daddy. Worse still he doesn't
drive a Ferrari anymore but instead has a mini
van. Unsure what has happened he tries to return
to his old life but finds that no one from the
apartment where he lived and the offices where
he worked know who he is. He bumps into the street
punk again who explains this is just a glimpse
(of what would have happened had he not left for
London all those years ago). Jack goes back to
his new life and job (as a tire salesman) not knowing
how long the glimpse will last. He gradually falls
for Kate all over gain and starts to bond with
the children - but he is afraid that he will be
transported back to his old life.
A
bit of genius going on here - mash up two perennial
Christmas classics - Its A Wonderful Life and A
Christmas Carol, to come up with a superb Kapraesque
contemporary movie. Being a contemporary movie
they wisely chose to leave out the more overly
sentimental aspects often employed within the
genre, choosing instead to concentrate on a deeper
and more interesting seem of the relative value
of wealth - i.e. money can't buy you happiness.
A kind of obvious sentiment that is apparent to
even the most ardent capitalist, but its a Christmas
film so we can afford to overlook some of the easy
answers that it has to portray. The story is skillfully
put together and, aside from Leaving Las Vegas,
Cage puts in the performance of his career. The
Family Man is a movie well worth watching
- especially if you are a fan of the classic Christmas
movies of the past.
The
Family Man is
placed at December 2nd on our Christmas
movies guide (USA edition).
Buy
this film and more from our Christmas
DVD store in association with Amazon.com
