THE FAMILY MAN
US, 2000, 126 minutes, Colour.
Nicolas Cage, Tea Leoni, Jeremy Piven, Josef Sommer, Saul Rubinek, Don Cheadle.
Directed by Brett Ratner
Jack Campbell farewells his girlfriend, Kate, leaves for England and a successful banking career. He forgets her. Thirteen years later, he is at the pinnacle of his profession, an expert in company takeovers and very persuasive in the boardroom. Success and wealth are before him.
It is Christmas Eve. He walks home in the snow encountering a hold-up in a store. Unexpectedly, he
he offers to help the owner who does not believe his street customer has a winning lottery ticket. But it is Jack who is the winner when the hold-up man turns out to be an 'angel' who offers Jack a glimpse of what his life with Kate might have been,
Jack wakes up on Christmas morning with Kate and with two children. He has been married for thirteen years, works for his father-in-law as a tyre salesman. Jack tries to cope with this new situation and adapt to a more friendly and loving atmosphere - something he has no practice in doing. He also uses his ingenuity to cover over gaps in his knowledge. While he yearns at times for his old life, even going into the company office and seeing what might have happened without him, he finally realises that he loves Kate and really appreciates what it is to have a family.
When his angel returns him to his old life, he is unwilling to go. He had forgotten a message to ring Kate and does so. He finds that she is a successful businesswoman on the verge of going to Paris. They have coffee and Jack describes the life that could be theirs...
A pleasing Christmas-time movie - plenty of sentiment and goodwill, but with some sharp lines and quips that undermine the sweetness a little but add to the entertainment. The writers have surely seen It's a Wonderful Life, probably several times, and have given us a variation on its theme of someone having a second chance and realising what the world would be like without them.
The hero is an unlikely Nicolas Cage, who carries off the romance and comedy with panache. His character, Jack, is a 'hot-shot' tycoon, a company and people manager, who, without realising it, shows that he really does have a generous heart deep down by risking his life for a stranger during a hold-up in a store. A 2000 alternative to Capra's angel, Clarence, (or a Dickens' 'Ghost of Christmas that Might Have Been') in the form of streetsmart Don Cheadle, offers Jack a chance to get ' a glimpse' of a different life had he married his sweetheart, Kate, and not gone to England and become a financier.
Bewildered when he wakes up in a strange house complete with Kate as his wife and with two children, he has to live his alternate life as a family man. As we would guess, he would have been a far nicer person as a New Jersey tyre salesman. This career would have been humdrum, but he would have been happy.
This is familiar material. In fact, it is very similar in plot to the earlier movie, Me, Myself, I which has a female version of the story, where Rachel Griffith finds herself living the family life she might have had. This movie is played well by Cage and by Tea Leoni as his newly-discovered wife. It's about integrity and having a heart.
1. A Christmas story? What if…?
2. The opening in the 1980s, the airport? The trip to England, pledges of love, Leone’s apprehensions that the relationship will break?
3. 2000, Jack and Wall Street, the offices, hotels? The contrast with Leone in New Jersey? Home, tyre sales, the streets? The musical score?
4. The title, expectations? The parallels with It’s a Wonderful Life?
5. The fantasy, what if…? Cash and his offering a glimpse of an alternate life?
6. The airport, Jack and Kate, in love, the trip to England, the possibilities for career, Kate wanting him to stay?
7. Jack, his age, affluent, clothes, apartments, his relationships, women in his apartment? The company, his status, advice, control, walking in and out, his dealings with Peter Lassiter, Alan? The issue of the merger, Christmas Eve, the secretaries commenting, his staying behind? His sense of achievement?
8. The worker, his tension, going out, wandering the street on Christmas Eve?
9. The episode with the gun, Cash and his presence, Jack risking his life? Doing a good deed, the possibilities for him to lead a good life?
10. Cash, a contemporary angel, the situation? Talking with Jack? The offering of a different life, a glimpse? Jack meeting him in the shop, asking for help, his not getting any? Later in the film, the drive, Jack’s choice and leaving him with it?
11. Jack waking, in bed, the shock to see Kate, the kids? His knowing the truth throughout all these sequences? The others not knowing? Knowing his alternate life?
12. His learning about the alternate life, the photos, the friends, Kevin and his explanations? His father-in-law, his company, his illness, Jack having to step in, his work in the tyre market, the other members of the staff, his office, having to learn? Seeing him in action? Kate, her life, sacrificing her work, the marriage, her joy with children, the pro bono law work, not bringing in much money? His shock about her sensibilities? His wanting to buy the expensive suit? The green suit that she bought him? The anniversary gifts and his forgetting? His being attracted to the baby, having to clean it up? His daughter, her knowing something of the truth, her getting him information, school? The parties, the friends? The effect? His relationship with Kate, falling in love with her again? Her exasperation? Not understanding him, his going out and disappearing? His career thwarted, his ambitions – but the possibility of a more personal life?
13. Lassiter, the car, coming to the station, Jack and his seeing the newspapers about the merger, talking with Lassiter, proposing strategies, his visit to the office, his interactions with Alan and his threats, becoming assertive? The decisions, the possibilities?
14. Talking things over with Kate, the regrets about his career, the possibility of doing something good? Cash not giving him any answers, his having to make them for himself?
15. Jack and his opting for his family? The good dimensions of the film?
