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| Family Man, The |
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  (8/10)
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Runtime: 126 |
| Public Rating: 6.92 (24 votes) |
Director: Brett Ratner |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Romance/ Drama |
Year: 2000 |
| Writer(s): David Diamond & David Weissman |
| Reviewed by: Movieman |
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"What if?" This statement is at the center of The Family Man and holds true through the entire film.
Nicolas Cage (Gone in 60 Seconds) plays Jack Campbell, a Wall Street hot shot and President of a major company. While in a convience store he meets Don Cheadle, because I'm having a brain freeze on the character name, I'll refer to him as Clarence. Anyways, like I was saying, Jack meets Clarence, who gives Jack the opportunity to see what his life would have been like if he hadn't left his true love Kate (Tea Leoni) for his break into the world of big money. Well, some how, it happened. Jack wakes up in a different house to the woman he left at the airport.and two children, an infant boy and a little girl, and instead of a Lambergeni, it's a mini-van and instead of a presidential position with a classy Wall Street firm, it's with Big Ed's Tire Store.
Nicolas Cage has a good performance that is not over the top, and has some good scenes with mainly TV actress Tea Leoni, whose only film that I've noticed was Will Smith's and Martin Laurence's Bad Boys. They both do the film a lot of good which is great considering it is not exactly an unpredictable movie.
Nicolas Cage specifically, though, does a great job that reminds me somewhat of James Stewart's performance. He has all the facial emotion added with the script and utilizes the supporting cast around him.
Director Brett Ratner showed some good camera work. It is quiet and subtle yet somewhat refreshing visuals of the merely falling snow, or the angles on the actors. Before this movie, Ratner was mainly noticed for moves like Rush Hour and Money Talks, two movies that you would not place in the same sentence as this one because of the film genre. Even though those two movies have little in common with Family Man, it has proved that Ratner has a knack for directing no matter what the genre is.
The writers, however, are not as experienced (but they could have fooled me). David Weissman and David Diamond both have worked on lower (or no) profile movies including such as Body Count (starring Alyssa Milano and Ice-T) written by Diamond and Dream a Little Dream 2 (starring Corey Haim and Feldman) and both have two movies coming out in next year or so called Guam Goes to the Moon and Evolution which is going to be higher profiled considering it is directed by Ivan Reitman and starring David Duchovny and Julianne Moore.
There are some hilarious scenes mixed in with the drama, and it works. These writers with Ratner, did a great job balancing it out, meaning they did not start out with some good laughs then they fizzled into the drama aspect, but it is evenly mixed.
Overall, though, the film is straight forward, which is its best quality. There's no huge twists and turns, no explosions or high speed car chases, just an old fashioned retooling of the classic It's A Wonderful Life and Mr. Destiny, and for some reason, that's why I loved this movie. After seeing the summer of explosions and thin storylines, it's nice to see a good script, some great acting, and some good thought. It does not veer from the main idea and goes on a tangent, it stays on course and does not disguise itself.
It's not perfect, but it is a good movie for the holidays and I hope that it is remembered for it's heart and how much there is beyond the simplistic script, that it is about taking chances, no matter what part of your life.
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