The Family Man

The Family Man (2000)

Because this is a Christmas movie, I've now seen it twice, and it's really not bad at all. The best aspects, like Don Cheadle, are too brief, and the plot is sometimes rammed into position by sentiment and a need to be popular. But it eventually makes sense and you come around to see the ordinary charm that pervades.

Not that Nicolas Cage is exactly charming. He's painted as a spoiled stockbroker jerk, both in life and in his dream. But like a Scrooge seen from within, and seeing an alternate life before his eyes, he has the revelation that changes his life. His arrogance slowly dissolves, and that's maybe what he learns most from the dream.

Téa Leoni is chipper and realistic in her cute way and makes for a love interest that isn't an over-idealized cliché, thankfully. And so she draws him into her life with natural ease. It's too easy of course, and there are unanswered questions—even "It's a Wonderful Life" is more believable in that sense, the logic of an alternative life—but it's fine by the end. And in fact, dreams do whatever they want, so there it is.

Add this to the growing list of movies that play with this profound and fun idea of seeing what your life would be like if…if whatever, if things had been different, or if you had been better. It's worth seeing on a lazy evening.

Without going into too much of the main storyline (you can read the reviews for that) I'll say that this movie is a very touching look at "what might have been." While I'm not a Cage fan, I'll give kudos to him, in that he portrayed his confused character masterfully. His struggles from realizing that he has left his high-octane business/playboy life for a simple family life are fun to watch.

And Tea Leoni....woohoo!

Nice holiday movie. Probably not one for the younger kids, due to some content (Tea's shower scene is STUNNING!) and innuendo, but definitely one you can be entertained by. 7 out of 10 stars.

The film opens in 1987, with Jack Campbell, played by Nicolas Cage, preparing to board his plane for an internship at a London bank. As Campbell and his college girlfriend Kate (Tea Leoni) say farewell, Kate begs him to stay, but Jack gets on his plane anyway. Their relationship ends while he is in London and Jack goes on to become the President of a large Wall Street company. While walking home from work on Christmas Eve thirteen years later, Campbell has an encounter with an angel, who gives him a "glimpse." This "glimpse" shows Jack what his life would be like if he and Kate were still together, and, in the end, Jack must choose between his life of riches and loneliness, or a life filled with family and love.

The central idea of the film is to show that a person who is rich in material objects often lacks more important things. It says that these things include being surrounded by people who care about you and having someone to love. Before Campbell's "glimpse," his only motivation is money and most of the movie is filmed at his office, showing he does not have much of a life outside of it. Without a second thought, he calls an emergency meeting with his staff at noon on Christmas, causing them to leave their families and come in to the office. The movie successfully shows the struggle between money and family because this is a theme to which the audience can relate.

The director is able to keep the audience's attention throughout the movie through the use of humor. Lassiter (Josef Sommer), the owner of the company, when asked why he is still at the office on Christmas Eve replies "because I'm a heartless bastard who only cares about money." In doing this, the director, while still concentrating on the theme of the movie, keeps the viewer watching. In doing these things and more, the director creates a film that is not only entertaining to watch, but also one that carries a message about life and happiness.

Nicholas Cage and Tea Leoni steal the show in this very pleasant movie. Jack Campbell (Cage) is a Wall Street investment banker at the top of his profession, that is until one Christmas eve, when he stumbles into the middle of a grocery store hold up. The next day he wakes up married to his college sweetheart Kate Reynolds (Leoni) and he has children. When he finds his old life no longer exists he has to adjust his lifestyle to fit in with his family.

With slight comparisons to Sliding Doors in the way the story works and the concept of life altering decisions 'Family Man' is very entertaining, charming and heart warming, not to mention subtly amusing throughout. Cage and Leoni are a great on-screen couple and the story is definitely intriguing enough to make for compulsive viewing.

7/10 Not as good as Sliding Doors, but its definitely worthy of your attention.

Wow ! What a movie. Very rarely I come across movie which keeps me absorbed till the end. This was one such movie. The knot was beautifully tied and untied. It tries to answer most of the questions we might tend to ask. The ending was more practical and was not forced just for the sake of an happy ending.

A great movie, I don't know how I didn't come across it so long. Along the lines of It's a wonderful life.