Fresh and Exciting

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is a comedy/drama about an alternate reality. Some of us have probably wondered how life might have been had we made one decision over another. So is the case of Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage) an egotistical, arrogant New York corporate investment deal-maker who is assigned to Europe for a year, leaving his college sweetheart Kate (Tea Leoni) behind. Kate's final appeal to him to stay back and be with her is declined. Jack awakens the following morning, not in his hotel room in Europe, but to a fast-forwarded version of what life (15 years later) would have been like to listened to Kate. Cash (Don Cheadle) is his guardian angel. This life is one of an average 9-5 salary family man living in the New Jersey suburbs married to Kate with a baby boy, and elementary school aged daughter. Jack distresses over this change. He dislikes living on budget, his low paying job as a tire salesman, and abhors the responsibilities of being a dad. After a few weeks, however, Jack begins to enjoy this life, Cash shows up again to return him to his original starting point. Jack falls asleep that night and awakens to his original life. Having seen a version of how life would have played out with Kate, he is now determined to have her.

Nicholas Cage plays a character named "Jack Campbell" a single Wall Street executive living in New York City, on Christmas Eve he finds out that his former girlfriend "Kate Reynolds" (Tea Leoni) called him after many years. Getting straight to the point he time travels back to a "what if" scenario where he is married to "Kate" and they have kids. We see that his life in New York is completely different, he has a posh penthouse apartment, a flashy car and enjoys his life of flings with women and having lots of money, when he's sucked into the other life of being a husband and father living in a boring house, driving a minivan and being a car tire salesman, we see that he tries to go back to his real life as a Wall Street guy, but no one recognises him - forcing him to go back to the alternate universe of being a family man, he tries to play the role of a husband, but is finding it difficult.The performances are well-acted, Director Brett Ratner did a good job, however the film is slow-paced at times.As the motion picture goes on, you can't help but want "Jack" to go back to his real life in NYC.This cine is clearly trying to shove down our throats the depiction that "Jack" is better off being married with kids and having a dead end job. The end of the movie is the most interesting as we see that "Jack" eventually gets to go back to his real life as a wall street executive, but he has a change of heart and wants that "what if" life as a family man, he tracks down "Kate" and we find out that she also doesn't have kids and is basically the female version of him, she lives in a nice apartment, has a slick job as a wealthy corporate lawyer and has no interest in having a family, we see that she has an assistant who is helping her move to Paris, "Jack" and "Kate" have a conversation while she, her assistant and the removal men are literally packing up her possessions, she says they should keep in touch, but it's obvious that she couldn't care less if she ever sees him again, he ends up following her to the airport and tells her about the alternate universe life that they would have had, she has coffee with him and that's the end of the film, implying that they will have that alternate universe life.The majority of the film is fine, but the ending is a cop out, it would have been better if "Kate" just went on the plane to Paris and "Jack" accept that their alternate life was only a "what if".There are many unrealistic things about this plot, it is highly unlikely that they would still end up having that alternate life implied at the end of the film, at the beginning if he'd have not gone to NYC then it's possible that they would have had that life with the kids, but people change and as we see he originally is a successful non-married person and so is she, "Jack" changes his outlook and entire mindset by the end of the film, but "Kate" does not have that mindset, so realistically them living that alternate universe life would not work, it doesn't seem that "Kate" had the same experience, so how on earth can she relate to him and his brand new mindset? he just looks like a crazy person shouting that they have a family and live in New Jersey, best thing she could do is run onto that plane ASAP!When you see the real "Kate" (the wealthy corporate lawyer) you can't help but be glad that this is who she really is, the movie tries to go back to a childish dream of the alternate universe as though being single, wealthy and career-minded is a wrong thing, the message that this movie is sending is that one can only be happy being married with kids, and that is just wrong because there are many happy single people who don't want kids, if this movie was unbiased then they would just let "Jack" and "Kate" go their own separate ways, the "what if" scenario is fine, but that's all it should be, but it's more of a "what could have been", and "what could have been" is not always a good thing.

"The Family Man" sets up to be an excellent and thoughtful dark comedy, incorporating and twisting the holiday themes of both "A Christmas Carol" and "It's a Wonderful Life," before copping-out at the end for a "Hollywood Ending" that makes little sense. But outside of the last 15 minutes, the movie is extremely intriguing.Our protagonist is Jack, a complex character played excellently by Nicolas Cage in one his best performances. Jack leaves his college girlfriend, Kate (played by Tea Leoni) to pursue a big career in business. Only 14 years later Jack has achieved tremendous success, being a young, top executive among the big corporations of New York City. Like Ebenezer Scrooge, Jack has dedicated his life to business success, but unlike Scrooge, he is not a wretched, isolated man. Jack is fulfilled, social and deliriously happy with his life.Like George Bailey from "It's A Wonderful Life," Jack becomes a person of interest for an Angel who has the ability to show our protagonists a "glimpse" of a different life for the purpose of turning their lives around. But unlike the comedic buffoon Clarence, who descends to save a suicidal George Bailey, Jack's angel (played with a delightfully sinister edge by Don Cheadle), takes notice of Jack, in a perverse twist, only because of a good and brave deed perpetrated by Jack. Jack's glimpse is to see a life where he didn't leave his college girlfriend. No longer among the elite, Jack must orient himself in a life 14 years mired in mundane family life in suburban New Jersey. Comedic mayhem ensues but the capable Jack perceives the aspects of family, hearth and home that he has missed in the penthouses of NYC skyscrapers.And just as Jack embraces the virtues of family life, the glimpse is over and the Angel arrives to send Jack to his old life. And Jack returns to the life he had loved with such absolute certainty but now feeling the emptiness of loss. And the movie asks the question, is this redemption? At the end, Scrooge joyously carries Tiny Tim on his shoulders through the streets of London, George Bailey runs home to be saved by his wife and friends. But if we can argue that Jack is the better man, is he happier?Had the movie ended here, the ending would be deliciously dark and controversial, but true and complete, a kind of Twilight Zone Christmas Carol. The audience might hope that Jack could go and start a different, more balanced life. But the powers that be decided to end the film with Jack finding Kate and trying to undue the mistakes of old. But how would this work? Kate has no experience of Jack's glimpse, and even if she did, they would be different people and the children would not be the same. There is no way to have those 14 years back. Because this makes no sense, the ending feels cheap and manipulative like some Studio Executive mandated a happier ending, ridiculousness notwithstanding. The unacceptable ending notwithstanding, the bulk of the film is both complex and funny and worthy of repeated viewings.

This movie depicts a man who has it all. A high paying job, an amazing apartment, an amazing car, and the opportunity to sleep with any woman he pleases. What if....after an angel shows him what his life would've been if he made one last minute snap decision that would change it all. what if he could have the other end of the "American dream". Jack Campbell must go through the journey of finding out that there is more to life than making money. Personally I HATED it. Instead of Jack making the best of the situation he goes into a hole of self loathing, and the loathing of all those around him. He blames everything wrong in his life on his wife. He does finally "enjoy himself" only to be thrust back into his old life....pretty pointless right? I mean Why him? and what is he supposed to do? chase after the one that got away? procreate the children that wont exist anyway? He fell in love with the life in his "glimpse" and wont love the one he can create. Nice way to make a person who is happy miserable, then happy and then even more miserable...then when they realize it is far too late probably suicidal... Merry Christmas Jack Campbell I hope you enjoyed the ride.