IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU (1994)
A film review by Steve Kong Edited by Cher Johnson Copyright 1998 Steve Kong
It Could Happen To You is a movie with the wrong title. It's working title was Cop Gives Waitress $2 Million Tip, which works a lot better. It Could Happen To You is a feel good, funny, and enchanting film.
Nicolas Cage (The Rock, Face/Off) is Charlie Lang, a genuinely nice and honest cop. He is content with his job. He is married to a loud obnoxious woman, Muriel (Rosie Perez). Then there's the waitress, Yvonne Biasi (Bridgette Fonda) who is down on her luck and in bankruptcy. One day Charlie and his partner stop to get some coffee from a rundown café where Yvonne works. Charlie has enough to pay for the coffee but not the tip, so tells Yvonne that he'll give her half of the winnings of the lottery ticket in his wallet if he wins. Yvonne brushes this offer off.
That night Charlie finds out that his ticket is a 4 million-dollar winner. He tries to break the news of the $2 million "tip" to his wife Muriel. And as you might guess, she's not too happy about it. Rosie Perez is hilarious in this series of scenes.
Cage and Fonda are charming onscreen together. They have a definite screen chemistry and that carries the film well. On the other side of the scale, though, is Rosie Perez. In some scenes she is hilarious, but in others she is the epitome of annoyance.
Though not very creative, the film doesn't feel recycled so much as familiar. This could happen and it could happen to me. Heck, it might have happened to someone already. And it is this feeling of familiarity that makes It Could Happen To You so easy to love. Kudos to Jane Anderson for writing such a loveable film.
It Could Happen To You is a wonderful movie that in the end will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy inside with a big grin on you face. Don't Miss It Could Happen To You.
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steve kong reviews@boiled.sbay.org
reviews from a guy who loves the cinema
http://boiled.sbay.org/boiled/
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