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Review - The Family Man
One of the most famous Christmas movies of all time is Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life", the perennial Jimmy Stewart classic that appears on our televisions around this time of year and reminds of what life is all about. In order to show how Stewart's beleaguered George Bailey discovered the true blessings of his life, Capra made liberal use of the supernatural, setting the heart of the story in a magical, what-if world revealed to him by the powers of Clarence, an angel trying to earn his wings. It's a technique that worked well then, but more surprisingly, it still works now, most especially in The Family Man, a movie that premiered in 2000 and was recently released on video.
The storyline is a familiar one - we join wealthy and influential bachelor Nicolas Cage - who, when faced with the choice between marriage and family and a lucrative career in banking, chose banking - on Christmas Eve at a point in his life where he has every conceivable luxury and feels on top of his world. He is the epitome of a spoiled man of elegance, until a phone call from his past, from the woman who begged him to chose a life with her, sets in motion a chain of events that will shake his certainty and make him reevaluate his life. The plots unfolds with the help of a mysterious stranger, played to perfection by Don Cheadle and what follows is a surreal journey into the life that Cage could have had, if he hadn't taken "the road less traveled" and settled down into the typical family man.
The greatness of this story is that what follows from here is a true depiction of a typical family man, not some golden-hued, schmaltzy glossing over of the real troubles many families face. When Cage discovers that he has a house in New Jersey, two kids and a wife of thirteen years and a job at his father-in-law's store selling tires all day that barely pays him enough to get by, his anxiety is palpable, his desperation in certain scenes so tangible that it practically jumps off the screen. He attempts to get back to his real life, of course, and has to deal with the hurt feelings and bewilderment of his preternaturally patient wife Tea Leoni. It takes a bit of time, a few diaper changes and a few sage words of advice from some bowling friends he never knew he had, but eventually he discovers a certain value in the simple but charming life he has found himself dropped into. He doesn't understand it himself, but in time he even lets himself enjoy romping in the snow with his daughter and being wildly romantic with his wife.
So of course, it has to come to an end.
With the same wide-eyed urgency of George Bailey, Cage's character rails against his old life after waking up squarely back in it, and seeks out the mysterious Don Cheadle again to help him get back to the life he never thought he wanted. The ending of this story is the best part of the movie, weaving reality with surreality, possibilities with the impossible, and leaving us with a feeling of hope and best of all, the belief that what happened to Cage could conceivably happen to any of us, if we know enough to make use of the opportunities we're given. It's a fantasy many people have probably indulged in at some point in their lives...what if I had married my college sweetheart? What if I had taken that job opportunity way back when? What if I had had that child that interrupted my plan all those years ago? And it makes us realize that perhaps it is never too late to learn what is truly valuable in life.
The Family Man owes a lot to the vision of Frank Capra; many have compared the two unfavourable, saying that this movie is merely a clumsy reworking of the Stewart classic. And naturally, it was not at all well received by the same blase and world-weary cynics who passed the first movie off as a saccharine schmaltz fest, and who hate anything to do with happy families or marriage or values in general. But there is a crucial difference between the two films, a difference that makes The Family Man the better film.
"It's a Wonderful Life" strove to show George how his entire town would suffer if he had never lived, how everyone's life would have been adversely affected, how the poor and the directionless would have suffered if George hadn't devoted every ounce of his life and that of his family's to the service of people who wouldn't help themselves. The Family Man is not so altruistic; it's only concern is in showing one man how his personal life would be so much the richer if he had taken a different path. While it takes the same pot shots at capitalists that everyone else so loves to do, it doesn't pretend that it was capitalism that ruined Cage's happiness, rather it was the lack of love and family so necessary to making the pursuit of capitalism all the more worthwhile. In that regard, I suspect The Family Man will resonate with more people on a much more profound level, as it should.
Treat yourself to a great movie this Christmas. If you have a loving spouse and a family, watch this movie to remind yourself of what a value they are to you. If you don't, watch this movie to find out what you're missing - because it really, truly is a wonderful life.
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