It Could Happen to You is the tale of a decent honest kindhearted cop named Charlie (Nicholas Cage in one of his restrained acting moments) from Queens who doesn't have enough to give his good hearted waitress Yvonne (Bridget Fonda, a very likable leading lady) a tip. So he promises to return the next day. In return he give her half of his lottery ticket and promises her that should it win he will give her half of his winnings, and if it doesn't, he will give her a tip.
This is Hollywood so needless to say Charlie's ticket wins and the lives of both Charlie and Yvonne change dramatically as a result. Charlie's Hyacinth Bucketish--it's Bouquet--wife, Muriel (Rosie Perez in a caricatured role she can do little with), whose sole reason to be seems to be to want lots of money so she can consume lots and lots of upscale, or her perception of what is upscale, consumer goods, isn't happy with the arrangement between Charlie and the waitress. When cop and waitress are caught spending a lot of time together by the tabloids she sees her opportunity and pounces, divorcing Charlie and taking all of her husband's and Yvonne's lottery winnings as payback. This being a Hollywood film the fairy tale can't, of course, end like that. Just as it seems that Cruella Di Vil evil has triumphed Cruella, err, Muriel gets her comeuppance and the New York Post, yes the same New York Post owned by that latter day Ebenezer Scrooge, comes to the rescue and true love and human goodness triumph after all. The End.
Speaking of latter days, It Could Happen to You is Capra-corn right down to its narrator named Angel which recalls the angelic narrators in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Its title recalls Capra's fairy taleish It Happened One Night (1934), a film about a romance between a down to earth newspaper reporter and a wealthy socialite. Its miracle fairy tale ending conjures up fairy tale images of Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. Its director, Andrew Bergman is someone who once upon a time wrote a scholarly tome about an America which no longer seems that far away, the Great Depression, specifically Hollywood's representation of it, in which the work of Capra had a major starring role.
It Could Happen to You is not a good film. It is not a bad film. It is film which, like so many other Hollywood films today, is mediocre and in this case mediocre on the negative side of the ledger at least in my opinion. And while It Could Happen to You manages to recapture a little bit of Hollywood's past, its ability to fully go back in time and recapture the magic of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood film's looks as flat as the colour of It Could Happen to You next to the rich black and white palette of classic Hollywood films like Meet John Doe (Frank Capra, 1941). So I cannot recommend It Could Happen to You. I do give it an A for effort, however. If romantic unrealistic fairy tales are your cup of tea check it out.
It Could Happen to You, Columbia TriStar, 1994, directed by Andrew Bergman, written by Jane Alexander, 101 minutes, 1:85:1
Speaking of latter days, It Could Happen to You is Capra-corn right down to its narrator named Angel which recalls the angelic narrators in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Its title recalls Capra's fairy taleish It Happened One Night (1934), a film about a romance between a down to earth newspaper reporter and a wealthy socialite. Its miracle fairy tale ending conjures up fairy tale images of Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. Its director, Andrew Bergman is someone who once upon a time wrote a scholarly tome about an America which no longer seems that far away, the Great Depression, specifically Hollywood's representation of it, in which the work of Capra had a major starring role.
It Could Happen to You is not a good film. It is not a bad film. It is film which, like so many other Hollywood films today, is mediocre and in this case mediocre on the negative side of the ledger at least in my opinion. And while It Could Happen to You manages to recapture a little bit of Hollywood's past, its ability to fully go back in time and recapture the magic of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood film's looks as flat as the colour of It Could Happen to You next to the rich black and white palette of classic Hollywood films like Meet John Doe (Frank Capra, 1941). So I cannot recommend It Could Happen to You. I do give it an A for effort, however. If romantic unrealistic fairy tales are your cup of tea check it out.
It Could Happen to You, Columbia TriStar, 1994, directed by Andrew Bergman, written by Jane Alexander, 101 minutes, 1:85:1
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