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The question that probably everybody once asked to himself / herself and many others is: what would you do if you won the lottery? Well, I know what I would do with it. I wouldn't change much to my lifestyle, but for those who don't know what to expect, this movie gives a good idea of how gaining a lot of money in a short period of time can influence your entire life... But I don't watch movies to know what to do with my life and neither should other people. Movies are entertainment and this one certainly offers plenty of that.

When Charlie Lang, a New York cop with a heart of gold, can't give a tip to Yvonne, a waitress at a small diner, he promises her that he will come back the next day to give her the double of her money or, in case he wins anything, half of his share of the state lottery. Of course she doesn't believe him, but when he comes back the next day and offers her the chance to chose between the two options, she goes for the lottery option. Only than he tells her that he has won 4 million dollars and that she will get half of that. But there is only one problem: his wife Muriel. She gets greedy, certainly doesn't want to share her money with a waitress she doesn't know, but doesn't even want to share it with her own husband. As Charlie and Muriel grow apart, Charlie and Yvonne grow together and it doesn't take long before Muriel files for divorce, grabs all the money and leaves with a rich man by her side...

There are plenty of romantic comedies nowadays and it is very hard to find a really good one. Well, this might be one of the few. I really liked it and there are many reasons for that. One certainly is that, despite the fact that we live in a world full of greed and egoism, some writers still try to give us hope by showing that not everything in the world is bad. OK, that may sound incredibly naive, but I really am not that stupid as you might think. I'm a business man in heart and soul, but sometimes I can really enjoy this type of positive escapism.

The fact that Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda play an important role in this movie also helps of course. And it has to be said, they really played their roles well and very convincingly. But they weren't the only ones, because the same can be said about Rosie Perez. She's incredibly good as the money-hungry bitch and despite what many people might think, she doesn't exaggerate. I've known people to change into someone just like her character once they had a bit of money in their hands... Overall this is a nice, perhaps a bit naive movie with some good acting and an interesting story. I really liked what I saw and find this one of the better romantic comedies I've ever seen. I give it a score of at least 7.5/10, although I think that even an 8/10 isn't exaggerated.

I have seen this movie some time ago, and I really enjoyed it. It`s simple, nice, romantic, at times sad, and isn't that what life's about? Things and circumstances change, but the personality should remain, and the hope also. It shows a straightforward cop, a nice waitress and a posesive and nasty wife. I liked the story, I liked the acting of Cage and the lovely Bridget Fonda. She's cute. Good movie, I recommend it. See ya around.

Warm, enchanting, simply wonderful romantic comedy plays out like a fairy tale brought to life. Cage is a gracious, good-natured New York cop who wins the lotto, but against the wishes of his stingy, mercurial wife (Perez), he then splits it with a hard-luck waitress (Fonda) as repayment for not leaving a tip! Predictable every step of the way, and hard to believe (though it's purportedly based on a true story), but it's so well-performed, so irresistibly charming, so sweet and romantic that you really don't mind. Not only a good showcase for the film's ideal leads, but also a wholesome, kindhearted film that gives hope to the notion of human decency. ***

The actual story behind the highly fictionalized movie script could have made a really good movie. According to the urban legend website "Snopes", the real events involved a not-so-young waitress and a not-so-young police detective who together select the winning numbers to a $6 million jackpot. There was no hint of romance between the two. But that would be too open-ended for the cookie cutter mentalities behind this movie. They must have went into a conference room or a lunch room or a diner and derived this formulaic romance between two unhappily married people.

Their result was this plot bringing together a Prince Charming, a Cinderella, a the Wicked Witch of New York. But they forget to include a nice dramatic flow of events. I just didn't experience any peaks and very little emotional depth. In the end, I wasn't satisfied.

At least Nicholas Cage makes the most of the opportunity to be normal and charming rather than quirky and charming (one of his first such efforts). He gives the movie whatever depth it attains. Pretty Bridge Fonda gives her usual quiet, unexciting performance. They're responsible for most of the positive rating I give this movie.

Rosie Perez, unfortunately, overwhelms the entire proceedings with nasally witchiness. And that's not the memory I want to take away from a movie.

Overall, it is a decent movie, a nice romantic comedy that ends "happily ever after." This is a story to watch to put someone in a good mood.... it's just basically a very good movie... and it's worth watching.

Overall rating: 6 out of 10.

'It Could Happen to You' is the sort of film, that touches the core of your heart. Its a cute film, with wonderful performances.

'It Could Happen to You' Synopsis: A police officer promises to share his lottery ticket with a waitress in lieu of a tip.

'It Could Happen to You', which is inspired by a real-life incident, is a feel-good romantic-comedy, about people who are in need of money & love. Its entirely & unabashedly a human-story, that displays romance & life's usual hiccups with earnestness.

Jane Anderson's Screenplay is well-balanced. It has its share of humor & romance. Andrew Bergman's Direction is excellent. Cinematography, Editing & Art Design are fair.

Performance-Wise: Nicolas Cage is wonderful, as always. Bridget Fonda is beautifully restrained, offering a performance of pure emotion. Rosie Perez is extra-ordinary. She slips into her character effortlessly. Wendell Pierce is first-rate. Stanley Tucci & Richard Jenkins are decent. The Late/Great Isaac Hayes leaves a mark.

On the whole, 'It Could Happen to You' works. Thumbs Up!

If you judge "It Could Happen to you" by its amount of realistic situations and characters, you'll probably give it a 4 out of 10. But, who cares about realism here? It's like a modern fairy tale, Frank Capra transported into the 90s. There's a wonderful storyline (Cop gives waitress a 2 million dollar tip), which apparently is even based on real-life events. Nicolas Cage plays the most honest cop imaginable, and he proves he can play a romantic lead role just as well as a dramatic action/thriller one. His character is not exactly 100 percent realistic, but that's not a problem, this is Hollywood for heaven's sake.

Even better than Cage is his female leading lady: the fascinating Bridget Fonda. Fonda is a wonderful actress who can play both a cute character like her waitress Yvonne here and more challenging roles like the LadyMacBeth-similar one in "A Simple Plan". Unfortunately she never had the career of a Julia Roberts but she is in fact more talented and better looking. Throughout the whole movie she gives a good performance and looks gorgeous. If I had the choice of giving a waitress the lottery money or not and the woman looked like Fonda I might even give it to her. Of course there aren't so many waitresses out there that look (and behave) as charming as her and chances are low I'll ever win two millions in the lottery.

Also notable is the wonderful chemistry between Cage and Fonda. As for the supporting roles special mention has to go to Perez. Although you wonder why Cage married her in the first place, she gives a humorous and entertaining performance. Of course there's kitsch but that's not necessarily bad. Good kitsch can be wonderful and this film, that has an absolutely great happy ending, serves as a perfect example of how a romantic comedy should be filmed. It's better than "Pretty Woman".

An honest, sweet fairy tale that is concise and heart-warming.

Why it wasn't screened in Singapore, I don't know. Guess it was the Forrest Gump phenomenon. And I didn't even really enjoy Forrest Gump.

It's a movie few would dislike. A wonderfully creative ending too.

I'm not really the type of person that gets all excited about romantic films, but there is just something about this film that makes you feel good all the way through.

Not only is the film very touching and quite romantic, but it also has something to say about honesty and greed in the world. Although, this isn't the first movie in history to touch on these subjects, but I'm pretty sure it has never been done quite like this before.

The cast in this film is just plain excellent. Nicolas Cage is as great as always, no big surprises or let downs in that department. Bridget Fonda is spectacular in her role. She delivers a very heart-felt performance and looks nothing less than fantastic throughout the film. Both characters played by Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda were excellent characters and really seem like people that you enjoy being around. Rosie Perez was very good in her role, I actually HATED her character, not in the sense that she did a poor job, but that her character was an unlikeable person. Wendell Pierce's character (Bo Williams) was great too, also a person you would be proud to call a friend. Isaac Hayes was nice touch in the film. The rest of the cast was very good as well.

I would definitely recommend this film to anyone that likes Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, romantic-comedies or just feel-good movies. I really enjoyed this film quite a bit and I hope that you will too. Thanks for reading,

-Chris

Yvonne Biasi (Bridget Fonda) is an aspiring actress gone bankrupt. Charlie (Nicolas Cage) is a NY city beat cop and his wife Muriel Lang (Rosie Perez) is desperate to get out of their one bedroom apartment in Queens. He's eating lunch at a diner with his partner Bo Williams (Wendell Pierce). With no money for the tip, he promises to split his lottery ticket with her and come back with a tip if it doesn't win. The jackpot is $64 million. Muriel is angry to split the jackpot with 15 other tickets but then Charlie tells her about Yvonne. Charlie pities Yvonne and gives her a choice between double the tip or half of the ticket. However, the money isn't what brings happily ever after.

It's a very sweet premise with nothing too risky. It depends a lot on the actors to make this straight romance work. Bridget is classic and Nick is restrained. They are sweeter than molasses. Rosie is as loud as heck and an annoying villain. It's a simple romantic fable that hits most of the right notes. This could have been made by Frank Capra himself.

Heart-warming little comedy that uses old Hollywood tactics to tell a fairy tale story that works really well on the big screen. New York cop Nicolas Cage does not have a tip for diner waitress Bridget Fonda so promises to split his earnings if he wins the state's lottery. Amazingly he does win. His share is $4 million and true to his word he gives half to Fonda to wife's Rosie Perez's dismay. Perez is the boss in a loveless marriage. Cage and Fonda then start to fall in love with each other and Perez decides to divorce Cage just out of spite and try to get the entire $4 million for herself. A really beautiful romantic film that works due to quiet, but highly effective performances by Cage and Fonda. Perez steals every scene here and the film's good screenplay makes it a nice success. 4 stars out of 5.

This movie may not be the best film in the world but it was simply so warm, romantic and cute that I could watch it again. The plot was very easy to guess, the characters were pretty simple, people were good or bad, nothing in between. Nicolas Cage was very sweet and tender as Charlie Lang. Bridget Fonda was a waitress easy to love, cute, humorous and sweet. Lang's wife was so awful that it made me to think why a man would even marry that kind of a woman. The wife was bad and so it didn't make Charlie a bad person if he fell in love with another woman. This movie made me feel good after seeing it. The film was romantic comedy (something that men would never like to see) and a good change for me after many weighty movies. I believe that many women would like this...at least I liked. The actors were good too and made their nice characters very lovable and bad characters very hateful. Don't wait anything big from this movie, just simply enjoy it's warm atmosphere.

...as a cynic.

I, through whatever reason, am absurdly cynical. A cynic, lest we forget, is somebody who puts very little faith in the good nature of humanity. Somebody who considers all good deeds to be selfishly motivated.

Somebody who should absolutely hate this film.

But I can't. I love this to pieces. No film has ever done as much to give me some faith in people. If Charlie can do the decent thing and split his ticket with Yvonne to fulfil a promise, despite the demands of a furious Muriel; if despite reaching a financial and emotional low they can still invite Angel in to put some food in his belly; and if the New York public can show their appreciation by doing whatever little they can to help out; then maybe, just maybe, there might be hope for the rest of us.

This. Is. Beautiful.

Completely irrational. Highly implausible. Extremely exaggerated.

And still, I cannot find a way to dislike it. Sometimes, you like it when a movie extracts precisely those bits of reality that you like, and emphasizes them.

Some of the scenes are superfluous, and do not add to the overall storyline - but the main thread is simply charming, even if you're not a sucker for romantic comedies. I am not, so I can tell ;-) The characters are portrayed in such a way that you choose sides quickly - from the start of the movie, you know who's Good and who's Bad. But they are also portrayed in such a way that you stick around to support the Good Ones. And you're not disappointed.

Rosie Perez plays the shrewish wife well beyond reasonable boundaries. The movie trots out every nasty New York cliche in the book. Nicholas Cage stumbles through the movie like Jackie Gleason's "Poor Soul."

On the plus side, Bridget Fonda scores well as the waitress whenever she is given the opportunity. Seymour Cassel is marvelous, stealing every scene in which he appears.

But, it's too mean-spirited and trite for me to ever wish to see again.

It Could Happen to You certainly meets any criteria for a good romantic comedy. It's got a handsome male lead (Nicolas Cage), a sweet damsel in distress (Bridget Fonda) and a villian (Rosie Perez). Add a plot that swivels between wonderful scenes of the interested parties falling in love and the chaos erupting from the bad woman with an attitude and you have a story that captures and holds the interest of the viewer. Isaac Hayes does a wonderful job narrating the story as it unfolds. This is one of my favorite movies of all time and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to curl up in an easy chair and watch an adorable romantic comedy with some touching dramatic scenes.

This is a cute movie. There are two reasons to see this movie. The first and most obvious is if you are on a date. The second reason is if you have been corrupted by movies like Starship Troopers and think all movies are about nothing. This movie is about something. Roger Ebert wrote this week, "Great films make audiences better; bad films make audiences worse" and I couldn't agree more. This movie may sound preachy, but its not. If a cry for love and human decency in the face of materialistic America is being preachy, then we can throw anything we have faith in out the window right now.

"It Could Happen to You" is a film which purports to be a true story. Well, that's complete hogwash and the film is only based, in small part, on a true story. So many details have been changed that it's hardly recognizable as the same story. And, the real life story was hardly a rom-com.

A cop cannot pay his tip at a restaurant, so in lieu of a tip he promises to split the earnings from a lottery ticket IF he wins. Well, he ends up winning and follows through with his promise. And, afterwards, he and his wife spend money with reckless abandon and marriages fall apart.

This is supposed to be a rom-com. I had serious problems with it because the main characters were all VERY foolish, extremely short-sighted AND treated each other very badly. They also were incredibly selfish. I didn't find any of this romantic in the least and I really hated the characters. Perhaps this seems romantic to some...I just wanted the characters to all go away...especially the one played by Rosie Perez...but certainly not just her!