The Family Man
(2000)
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Nicolas Cage stars as Jack Campbell, a career-driven workaholic who has everything: an exciting job, a Ferarri, a closetful of Zegna suits, and the attention of any woman he wants. His life changes when, after working a full day on Christmas Eve, he intervenes in a convenience store holdup. The apparent criminal, Cash (Don Cheadle), speaks to Jack in epigrams about his satisfaction with life. When Jack wakes up the next day, he's suddenly living in a New Jersey suburb, where he's married to his college sweetheart (Tea Leoni) and is the father of two children. At first he is aghast, but Jack soon warms to his new life even though he knows that it cannot last. Unabashedly sentimental, the film is also a great comedy, as Cage gives a superb performance that makes the most of his character's obvious disgust with his suburban surroundings and even allows for a few moments of hysterics reminiscent of VAMPIRE'S KISS. Filled with great performances (notably Ms. Leoni's role as Jack's wife), inspired comedy, and a premise that suggests a slightly darker version of classics like A CHRISTMAS CAROL and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, THE FAMILY MAN is an affecting and entertaining holiday film. |
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Nicolas Cage is the high-powered businessman who goes to bed in his designer Manhattan apartment on Christmas Eve, but wakes up in a suburban home on Christmas Day, complete with wife, dog and kids. It seems he's getting the chance to see what his life would have been like had he stayed with his college sweetheart (Téa Leoni) instead of pursuing a highly successful life in the fast lane. Cage, who displayed a knack for comedy earlier in his career with Peggy Sue Got Married, is fun as the fish out of water trying to adapt to school runs and working at a local tyre company, and Leoni is spot-on as his slightly harassed wife. While the film's feel-good factor probably won't work at other times of the year, this cute seasonal fare is perfect viewing to get you in the “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” mood.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Slick, sentimental retread of It's A Wonderful Life, in which a selfish man is redeemed; it has the disadvantage that his bachelor existence seems the more preferable of the two, and that, while the earlier film was concerned with the effect of one