The Family Man [DVD]

a great christmas movie; before Nicholas cage went nuts

I loved this move! The actors did an amazing job in their roles. It is very relatable and a timeless movie. Family friendly so you can watch with kids as well but it’s geared for adults. Would highly recommend!

By now you probably now more or less what the plot of this film is. If that plot sounds appealing, you will definitely like this film. Well written, well directed, and very well acted, it takes a potentially schmaltzy premise and makes a very enjoyable film out of it. Although the DVD box has the reviewer quote "Hilarious" on the front, for the most part this is an amusing and sentimental film, rather than a knee-slapper. Once you accept the fantasy premise, most of the film rings true. Sure, if the road not taken involves being married to Tea Leoni, the deck is stacked a bit. But I really bought into the emotional truth at the core of this film. My only quibble [SPOILER ALERT] concerns the ending. Once Jack has come to love his suburban Jersey life and then is jerked back into his investment banker life, his actions don't really seem convincing. After he tracks Kate down to her townhouse as she packs to leave for Paris, would he really turn away and leave without a greater effort to connect with her? And having gone to the airport to make one last attempt to convince her to stay, would he once again nearly turn away after making only another feeble effort? Seems inconsistent with his hard-driving nature and with the epiphany he had experienced in his Jersey life. The brief scene that immediately precedes these scenes in which he tells his investment banker colleagues that he buys into his NYC life isn't enough to justify the feebleness of his subsequent efforts to win back Kate. Clearly, these final scenes were meant to increase the drama of the eventual reconnection, but alone in the film they don't ring true to me.Finally, there is a little bit of a glitch in the film. [Continued spoiler alert] At one point, Jack finds out that he and Kate moved from Greenwich Village to Jersey only after Kate became pregnant. Their oldest child is at most five (more likely four), and 13 years have past between 1987, when Jack left for London, and 2000, when the movie is set. So that means they lived in Greenwich Village pursuing their Manhattan careers for at least seven years before settling in Jersey - unless, implausibly, Jack began working at Big Ed's early on and was commuting back and forth every day from Manhattan to Jersey. A long enough time, you would think, for Jack to have made progress in the world of Manhattan finance, even without benefit of the London internship, and for Kate to have continued on her actual (non-pro bono lawyer) career path. Presumably, the filmmakers needed a significant span of time to make Jack's rise to the top of the investment banking world plausible and to match Nicholas Cage's age (although Tea Leoni could easily have passed for being in her late 20s), and making their kids older would have made them less cute. Unfortunately, though, the chronology doesn't quite add up. Still, a terrifically entertaining film (particularly at Christmas)!

Fun movie for christmas time

My favorite Nicolas Cage movie. It's a great story of righting a wrong after college. Tia Leona is fantastic as she is delicious. Great drama, with some comedy dropped in here, and there.

This movie is the other side of passion. It is the 'It's A Wonderful Life' of our age and just as touching. This movie is for all of us who have it all but have forgotten or don't know it and are wondering... what if? This is a story of what really matters: sharing life with those you love and measuring success by the quality of one's relationships.The intelligent dialog is scripted in a dramatically direct but believable way, asking the question, "What if...?" Jack Campbell (Nicholas Cage), a powerful CEO, is a man who says, "I have everything I need" In fact he has more and is content with his life, but oblivious to what he might really own: those things which money can't buy. Inadvertantly, he crosses paths with an angel whose mission it is to test peoples character in their dealing with one another. Touched by a courageous act of Jack's, the angel decides to open Jack's eye's to the wealth he could never earn on Wall Street.Jack Campbell is given a "glimpse" of what his life would have been had he married his college sweetheart and had a family. His is forced to live a middle class life. He ignorantly makes the life of his might-have-been family a bit chaotic as he pieces together the events which causes his middle class lifestyle instead of becoming a powerful CEO. He must continue to live this life until he, the man who has "everything" he needs, learns what it is that he is missing.What really makes this story special is the reversed mid-life crisis roll of Jack Campbell. Since Jack has everthing he ever wanted it removes the typical mid-life crisis scenario of wanting more which in turn allows the story to more sincerely explore the depths of our human needs.Although, Nicholas Cage's portrail of a powerful executive is slightly off, he is fabulous as the stund middle class father of a family he never had. Especially touching is the how his character learns to overcome his blinding ambition to become the "envy" of his peers for the sake of his personal pride. Nonetheless, this movie could not have been as enchanting without Tea Leoni's strong, intelligently and lovingly scripted role. Her character is the woman of our dreams... (And, then there's Tea herself!) If you are a man in your 30's who has never been married for fear of losing yourself and everything you own, you will be inspired to fearlessly entertain the hopes and joys that might be yours.What might we have become if...? Unique is this movies positive outlook to this question. This story submits an alternate answer to those who pridefully insist they will be happy as soon as they accomplish 'something'. It suggests that joy is sharing with one's family life-as-it-is along with their hopes and dreams of what they are still becoming.I left this movie asking myself, "What have I become", "where am I going" and "what's really important?"

love this movie and watch it over and over lol