THE FAMILY MAN (2000) / ***
Directed by Brett Ratner. Screenplay by David Diamond and David Weissman. Starring Nicolas Cage, Tea Leoni, Jeremy Piven. Running time: 124 minutes. Rated PG for mature theme by the MFCB. Reviewed on December 27th, 2000.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
Charles Dickens did it first, of course, and also did it best. His 1843 "A Christmas Carol" was, to my knowledge, the earliest major work in which a character finds redemption and turns his life around after witnessing other lives and times -- some real, some merely possibilities. Next came Frank Capra's classic 1946 film "It's A Wonderful Life", which spun the concept only slightly by having as its protagonist a truly good man, who is shown what the world would be like if he never existed.
"The Family Man" is another slight variation on the themes embraced by Dickens and Capra. The main character this time around is Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage), who is a bit of a cross between Ebenezer Scrooge and George Bailey. Jack is "a credit to capitalism" according to his boss -- a pragmatic businessman who handles multi-billion-dollar mergers and his latest romantic conquest with comparable skill. Things could have been different. In 1987, Jack left his college sweetheart, Kate (Tea Leoni), for an internship in London. Despite his promises, he never returned.
But Jack is not a bad man. On Christmas Eve, he intervenes in a convenience store hold-up, talking the culprit (Don Cheadle) out of the store. During their conversation, Jack professes that he is missing nothing from his life, which gets a rise out of the would-be robber. The next morning, Jack wakes up to discover his life has changed. Somehow, he has been married to Kate for the past thirteen years, has two kids and a dog, and sells tires for a living. Again encountering the man from the convenience store, Jack learns that he is being given a glimpse of the life he could have led, for reasons he is supposed to figure out for himself.
"The Family Man" hews predictably close to the structure laid out by Dickens. Jack is initially hostile toward his fate, refusing to accept a life of changing diapers, mixing chocolate milk, and hawking the BF Goodrich line. Gradually, he warms up to this life, learning that, even though his life with Kate is missing many of the perks of his "real" life, it is nonetheless richer in more important ways. Where "The Family Man" differs from its predecessors is that it is far less obvious how this new understanding will affect Jack once he returns to his normal existence.
In some ways, this is "The Family Man"'s chief flaw. Unlike Scrooge or Bailey, both of whom were heading down indisputably dark paths, it's not all that obvious that Jack Campbell needs saving. There is something rankling about the film's implicit assertion that, because his life is not middle-America-perfect, Jack has made poor decisions. Sure, his existence might not be ideal, but it's not so terrible either. It leaves one to wonder why Cheadle is wasting his time with somebody like Jack when there are other people in the world in far more desperate need of divine intervention.
But despite its clunky execution, "The Family Man" resonates with undeniable warmth. Despite the thematic problems it creates, the movie's refusal to paint Jack as a Scrooge-type villain creates a refreshingly original feeling. This is not simply "A Christmas Carol" (or, for that matter, "It's A Wonderful Life") all over again, but an altogether different take on the concept. Jack is neither a blackguard nor a hero, but a regular guy caught in a seemingly untenable situation.
As a result, there is a certain authenticity to the scenes of Jack becoming accustomed to his parallel life. His relationship with "his" children, his attempts to engage in interests he himself never possessed (bowling, for example), and the occasional intrusions of his actual life, all strike a genuine chord. It's enough to make you wonder how we might react under comparable circumstances. By the end of Jack's "glimpse", the movie has convinced us that this other life is the ideal Jack should have been striving for, even if, objectively, that is not necessarily the case.
A large part of this is due to the splendid performances by Cage and Leoni, who demonstrate terrific on-screen chemistry. They make it clear that Jack and Kate are meant to be together, no matter what sacrifices had to have been made to accomplish it. One of "The Family Man"'s true delights is the slow revelation of all the little things that make this parallel life so gifted -- alternate-Jack's wedding anniversary surprises, for example, or the circumstances under which he came to work at the tire store. It is difficult not to be moved by Jack's gradual realisation of his deep, long-denied love for Kate, and this makes the viewer's knowledge of the impermanence (as Cheadle puts it) of Jack's experience all the more lamentable.
The screenplay, by David Diamond and David Weissman, has plenty of charm, even if it does occasionally indulge in its share of kitsch. A predictable scene in which Jack tries to change the baby's diapers, for example, is an excursion into unnecessarily sitcom-level humour which mercifully does not go on for too long. For the most part, though, Diamond and Weissman do a good job of balancing comedy and drama. They also successfully maintain the reality of Jack's alternate life, not demanding too much suspension of disbelief in the way other characters react to Jack's strange behaviour. Helmer Brett Ratner is even-handed in his direction, rarely letting the movie get too corny and providing some beautifully touching moments as well.
Sentimentality is a tough thing to pull off in movies. Handled well, it can make for a memorable cinemagoing experience. Handled badly, the result is often a thoroughly rotten work of film. "The Family Man" is not perfect -- it certainly won't supplant "It's A Wonderful Life" as a staple of holiday viewing -- but it is one of the more successful sentimental films in recent memory. It's a movie that's difficult to watch without smiling, frequently. To do otherwise would be positively, well, Scrooge-like.
Copyright © 2000 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies/TheFamilyMan.html
_______________________________________________________________________ / Shannon Patrick Sullivan | "We are all in the gutter, but some of us \ | shannon@mun.ca | are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde | \___________________________|__________________________________________/ | Popcorn Gallery Movie Reviews www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | | Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) /drwho.html |
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