Hey folks, Harry here with a look at THE FAMILY MAN, from way out in Vienna... Now this is Roland's first film review ever... and for a FIGHT CLUB loving 17 year old to like a heart warming light comedy about a man changing his direction in life... Well, technically, you could say it was the same story... (though stretching the connections a bit... and minus the violence hehehe) Here's our man in Vienna....
The Family Man” – Review
Ok…. This is my first movie review ever !
I live in Vienna and I that means that I catch all the movies in cinema with a 3 to 10 week delay. That sucks and even more german dub sucks. But I am pretty happy because there are Sneak Previews in all the cinemas. “Sneak Preview” in Austria means you get to see a movie in english 1 month before release. Usually all the movies I see there have been released in the USA so I was pretty surprised that they showed us Nicolas Cage’s new movie “The Family Man”.
Let me start by saying that I like all kind of movies, in my opinon there is no bad movie because I simply love movies, I even had fun with Godzilla . I am 17 years old, I listen to KoRn music, my favorite movie is Fight Club, I am really interessted in movies and well let’s say I watch 1 movie every day ( bye the way, its pretty hard to get all the classics ) so I am not really the target audience for “The Family Man”. But unfortunatly I liked it and I liked it pretty much. Now ok there will be a lot of people who will pass on this one, but at this point I want to remember the so called movie buffs that movies should make you laugh and cry. No! not every movie should be like Taxi Driver or like Being John Malkovich and it defenitly shouldn’t be so… I just hate guys who say: “Well Jason X was crap! Where was the character development”. Those people are just arghl…… forget it, I start with my review
“Family Man” is about Jack Campell (Nic Cage). Jack Campell is a wealthy wallstreet broker or something like that and he would do anything for his job and that means no happy chrismas eve for Jack. Nothing is more important than your work But it wasn’t always like that. Some years ago Jack had a girlfriend named Kate and they wanted to marry. Unfortunatly Jack blew it and So here comes your typical “ What would if ?” Chrismas Story that is not so typical.
What would it be like to have children ?
What would it be like to work at Big Earls shop right around the corner?
To live in Jersey and not Manhatten ?
What would it be like to be marryed to the perfect woman ?
We all ask us this questions time to time, and you know what ? we need to do that, we need to to think about the choices we have made and the choices we are going to make. And that’s what the movie is about. So one morning Jack finds himself in a different bed, a different house and guess what ! he’s not alone. From now on he lives the perfect life with the perfect family. Surely Jack does not know that and it takes him time to realize this…… ok let’s stop here.
I think I have seen a bunch of these movies and just a few of them worked and I can tell you Family Man worked !
The movie made you realize that… life is ain’t about.. how much money you earn because at some point in your life you will realize… money does not love you! This movie was heart warming and not too (let me invent a new word) hollywoodily. The Ending was handeled pretty good and I think that’s why the movie workeed. When I left the theater I didn’t felt cheated it’s not like he wakes up in his old bed runs to her and ask her to marry her… and she shouts out… Oh yes Jack, I still love you… lets get married. The ending is positive but not unrealistic. When was the last time you saw someone searching his love lady in the airport…finding her….. talking to her…..and no, not everybody on the whole airport cared about that…actually nobody cared. I really liked how Brett Ratner directed the movie. He succeeded to make you feel warm and comfortable in this messy house in Jersey and this family and and uncomfortable in the wallstreet world with the beautiful apartments. Danny Elfmans score was also kinda nice…..
So… sure this movie is no masterpiece… but it’s a warm little movie that makes you smile when you go out…..
Cu Roland
PS: I like the style of the end credits….
