High-powered Wall Street bachelor Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage) gets the shock of a lifetime when he wakes up one morning in suburban New Jersey next to Kate (Téa Leoni) the girlfriend he left 13 years ago. Suddenly Jack’s entire world is turned upside down. Can this once single-minded exec actually become The Family Man?System Requirements:Starring: Nicolas Cage Téa Leoni. Directed By: Brett Ratner. Running Time: 126 Min. Color. This film is presented in “Widescreen” format. Copyright 2000 Universal Distribution Corp.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 025192094125 Manufacturer No: 61020941Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage) is the quintessential Wall Street shark, scoring killer deals by day and shallow escort sex by night. His round-the-clock routine of empty luxuries is disturbed one lonely Christmas Eve when a gun-packing punk (Don Cheadle)–perhaps an angel of mercy–responds to an altruistic gesture from Jack by giving him “a glimpse” of the life he could have had. Could have, that is, if he had married the girlfriend (Téa Leoni) he’d abandoned 13 years earlier, raised two adorable children, worked in his father-in-law’s retail tire outlet, and lived happily ever after in suburban New Jersey. Thrust into this “glimpse” of the path not taken, Jack’s a single-malt man in a lite-brew world, wondering if he’ll ever return to his “better” life of callous wealth and solitude–or if he even wants to.
Carp all you want about this derivative premise, with its marginal stereotypes and biased embrace of domestic bliss and dirty diapers. The simple fact is, The Family Man works like a charm. Under the assured direction of Brett Ratner (Rush Hour), this holiday crowd-pleaser offers comedy and chemistry in equal measure, making the hilarity of Jack’s predicament a smooth catalyst for that rarest of movie romances: the marital love story. Leoni is Cage’s perfect match as Jack’s idealized but imperfect wife, and the movie’s appeal largely derives from its awareness that any life has its pleasures and pains. While it only flirts with the dark desperation that makes It’s a Wonderful Life a classic predecessor, The Family Man is an irresistible what-if fantasy, and even its debatable ending rides on a wave of genuine warmth and sentiment. –Jeff Shannon
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March 5, 2010
#1
I won’t belabor the point. I was forced to watch this by my mom
and one of my aunts last Christmas. It was hard to keep from gagging. It would be nice to see Tea Leoni play a decent character someday. Cage – what can you say? Snake Eyes, City Of Angels, Bringing Out The Dead, and this piece of (euphemism for
excrement). He sure can pick ‘em, can’t he? A simply wretched film, there is absolutely no other way to describe it. Manipulative, embarrassing, patronizing. GARBAGE!
March 5, 2010
#2
First of all Nicolos Cage has never been the best actor.I would have to say that the only good movie he was in was “Face Off”
Any director that picks him must be desperate for actors.This movie was so boaring.How about some excitement?Were did they go wrong there?
March 5, 2010
#3
C’mon – could this movie be any more predictable? Even my girlfriend fell asleep. Complete waste of time.
March 5, 2010
#4
This movie with one of the greatest leading men, Nicholas Cage, falls painfully short of its message. The formula, although it has been done before and better, is still interesting. Rich man chooses career over love, but what if fate gave him another chance or a “glimpse” at what his life might have been. This movie, while having its moments, is slow moving and just when you get in the groove of his alternate existance they pull the rug out from underneath you by making the characters so far removed from their other life its impossible to cheer for the current couple who are both wealthy and out of touch. The Family Man tried, but it ultimately failed.
March 5, 2010
#5
Oh dear lord, there are so many things wrong with this picture, its enough to make one long for Gone in Sixty-TWO seconds. Take It’s a Wonderful Life and mix in the heavy-handed schlock of A Robin Williams holiday movie–especially the god-awfulness of What Dreams May Come—and you have this ego fart of a movie. Nicholas Cage can’t decide what to do now that his uncle has bought him the required Oscar nepostism gets you in Hollywood (hello Angeline Jolie, how are you?), so he decides on crap. crap crap crap. I’ll say it again. crap.
Tea Leoni, showing her brilliance in role choices that have delivered unto us Jurassic Park 2 and The Naked Truth and made her so memorable and successful, plays the most one-dimensional, idotic, houswives-do-NOT-look-like this-or-act-like-this housewife in Cage’s “glimpse” flashes. Also, Don Cheadle appears in this movie, and nothing says “got the job through the director of Boogie Nights” more than Don Cheadle. I mean, c’mon, is there any point to this man other than to work in the vicinity of famous people? He deosn’t scare me, amuse me, bethought me, or in any way shape or form serve a purpose. His finest performance comes when he exits.
Coming from a person who nearly paid full New York City prices for this movie, I’d say what these people responsible for this reprehensible piece of trash deserve is to actually to be banished to the land Hollywood can’t understand worth a dime: suburbia.