The Family Man (2000) : Dickens, Capra & Aliens [Mike’s Review]
Today on Cage Club we get a glimpse of what could have been in “The Family Man”. This is the second Cage Christmas movie we have watched so far at Cage Club after the comedy “Trapped in Paradise” and I think it’s the better of the two. The story borrows elements from popular Christmas tales such as Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” and subsequent adaptations like the modern telling “Scrooged” with Bill Murray. It also takes from the Frank Capra family classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart, which was adapted from a short story by Phillip Van Doren Stern called “The Greatest Gift”.
Cage plays Jack Campbell, president of a very successful company, on the verge of a multi-billion dollar deal, going down on Christmas. He’s sort of Scrooge like in that he loves money more than the people in his life, but he’s got a charisma and charm about him that says his soul isn’t completely corrupted yet and there may be hope for this man yet. Thirteen years ago Jack left his girlfriend Kate for some great opportunity in London and hasn’t spoken to her since. He loves money and his bachelor life and is prepared to sacrifice family and friends for success. His world is turned upside down on Christmas Eve when he tries to diffuse a hold up in a Deli late at night. Jack tries to help the “Man with the gun” ( who I will refer to as Clarence from now on ) by buying the lotto ticket the clerk wouldn’t redeem. They leave the Deli together and talk about life briefly. Jack wants to help Clarence, but Clarence is secretly some type of Angel, it’s not quite clear. He’s not a Devil, but he’s very mischievous. He tells Jack that he is the one that is missing something, and he does it in a cryptic and foreboding way. Jack seems un-phased by this encounter and heads home to sleep. The next morning Jack wakes up in bed next to Kate on Christmas Morning !!! Before Jack knows what is going on his Daughter, Son and Dog are all invading his privacy, jumping on the bed and screaming about opening presents. Jack has a total freak out and darts to his apartment building in the city to find out what the hell is happening. The door man and neighbor don’t recognize him and he believes he’s going crazy. Just then, Clarence shows up looking all rich and clean and driving Jack’s old sports car. He tells Jack that he is getting a “Glimpse” of what his life would have been like if he didn’t chase paper his whole life and settled down with his main honey. Jack returns to the suburbs of New Jersey in this alternate universe that he has been transported to and attempts to navigate life as a Family Man.
It’s not clear exactly what type of space/time warp Jack breached. Is this a pocket universe created only for him, or one of countless parallel Earth’s that exists out there? It’s not much of an issue but I begin to wonder what will happen to Jack’s daughter and son if he ever gets home. Will they cease to exist as the universe collapses, or will they live on like always with their version of Jack like nothing ever happened. These are questions I encountered watching this I never would have dreamed I’d be asking.
Jack certainly has trouble catching up to this new life in progress. He is not prepared for marriage and kids and sharing his life in general. He’s used to being in charge and lavishing himself in the best of things. Now he is a middle class tire salesman with a mortgage. Though he stumbles along the way, Jack is won over by this possible life with Kate and grows to accepts his role as a Family Man. Cage has some especially nice chemistry with his daughter, who can tell he’s not her real Dad, convinced Cage is an Alien replicant. Just when he gets comfortable he is visited by Clarence and reminded that he must return to his real life where he is alone.
When he returns to his proper dimension, Jack longs for his life that could have been and contacts Kate only to discover she never married in the “real” timeline, but did become a successful lawyer about to move to France. Jack stops her at the airport and convinces her to take the next flight, something that Jack was not willing to do in the beginning of the film. The film ends with Jack and Kate talking in an airport cafe on Christmas night, their future uncertain, as credits roll.
This movie also feels like an exploration of the phenomenon known as the Mid Life Crisis. You have rich and successful Jack who has been living a life he thinks he wants, only to realize it’s not the life he actually needs. He starts thinking about the past and how things could have been different, only to yearn for a second chance at obtaining those things. He looses all his cool and expensive possessions, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to get it all back. It’s only when he can let go of the material items that bring him false security that he can see the real treasure is this family he should have had.
That will do it for The Family Man. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie and felt that Cage worked really well in the fish out of Water scenario. I also felt he had good chemistry with Tea Leoni, who plays Kate his wife. They really get some good scenes together where they get to act weather it be one of their big arguments or when they are making up. I buy them as a couple and as real people.
Next up on cage Club we go back to WW2 and a small Greek island that’s about to be visited by a certain someone and his instrument. Beautiful scenery, crazy accents and Batman himself show up, so join us for “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” next time on Cage Club.
Mike
@the_mikestir
