The Family Man
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| The Family Man | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Brett Ratner |
| Produced by | Marc Abraham Tony Ludwig Alan Riche Zvi Howard Rosenman |
| Written by | David Diamond David Weissman |
| Starring | Nicolas Cage Téa Leoni Don Cheadle |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
| Cinematography | Dante Spinotti |
| Editing by | Mike Helfrich |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 22, 2000 |
| Running time | 125 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $60,000,000 (estimated) |
| Gross revenue | $75,793,305 (domestic) $124,745,083 (worldwide) |
The Family Man is a 2000 comedy-drama film, directed by Brett Ratner and starring Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni. Cage produced the film under his Saturn Films production company.
The film centers on a man, who sees what could have been had he made a different decision thirteen years ago. It is similar to It's a Wonderful Life in that it begins on Christmas Eve with a life-and-death situation, involving an angel, who tries to convince the main character into taking an earnest look at his life. Moreover, in the end, the protagonists in both movies conclude that living a quiet family life is preferable to achieving success and wealth at work.
The film has also been compared to Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol in that, the protagonist is a greedy man, who cares little about anyone except himself, who then has his life outlook completely changed after a series of real-life "what if?" experiences.
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[edit] Synopsis
Jack Campbell is a single, wealthy Wall Street arbitrageur living the high life in New York City. He is surprised to see that his former girlfriend, Kate, tried to give him a call after many years, and wonders (consulting his mentor at the firm) whether to answer it the next day. That night, around Christmas, he walks into a convenience store and convinces an angry lottery contestant, known as "Cash", not to shoot the clerk. He offers to help Cash before going to sleep in his penthouse.
The next morning, on Christmas, he wakes up in a suburban New Jersey bedroom with Kate and two children. He hurries back to his office and condo, but not even his closest friends recognize him. He meets Cash, who is driving the Ferrari that Jack lost track of, and begins to explain to Jack that he is in an alternate universe in order to learn a lesson.
Jack realizes that he is living the life he could have had if he had not gone to London and become an investment banker but had stayed in the United States with his girlfriend. He instead has a modest family life, where he is a tire salesman and Kate is a non-profit lawyer. Jack struggles to fit into the role of a family man, making many serious blunders such as missing opening Christmas presents, flirting with a slut, and forgetting his anniversary. Very soon, Jack's young "daughter" realizes his secret and decides to assist him in surviving his new life. He begins to succeed in his life, bonding with his "children," falling in love with his wife and working hard at his dull job.
He suddenly finds himself being offered a contract to work at the very same investment firm from his alternate life. There he meets his old mentor, who once again gladly offers him a job, and a former sycophant employee who is instead in Jack's old position, with an assertiveness he did not possess as a subordinate. While he is wowed by the potential salary and other complementary extreme luxuries, Kate convinces him to decline and spend time with his family.
Just as Jack is finally realizing the true value of his new life, his epiphany jolts him back to his wealthy —yet as he now realizes, lonely— former life. In desperation, he forgoes closing his $130 billion pharmaceutical acquisition deal to intercept Kate (who had left the message yesterday). He finds her moving out of a luxury townhouse - like Jack, she was also left to focus on her career and became a very wealthy lawyer, and only called him to give back some of his old possessions. Before she moves her business to Paris, he runs after her at the airport and, seemingly at random, describes the family they had in the alternate universe in an effort to get back together with her. Shocked but intrigued, she agrees to a cup of coffee at the airport, suggesting that they might have a future after all.
[edit] Cast
- Nicolas Cage as Jack Campbell
- Téa Leoni as Kate Reynolds
- Don Cheadle as Cash
- Jake and Ryan Milkovich as Josh
- Makenzie Vega as Annie
- Jeremy Piven as Arnie
- Saul Rubinek as Alan Mintz
- Josef Sommer as Peter Lassiter
- Harve Presnell as Big Ed
- Mary Beth Hurt as Adelle
- Amber Valletta as Paula
- Ken Leung as Sam Wong
- Kate Walsh as Jeannie
- Gianni Russo as Nick
- Tom McGowan as Bill
- Joel McKinnon Miller as Tommy
- Robert Downey, Sr. as Man in House
- Paul Sorvino as Sydney Potter
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Similar films include:
- Click, in which a man who puts work before his family is shown life where work wins out and his family leaves him.
- It's a Wonderful Life, in which a man is able to see how things could have been if he'd never lived.
- Mr. Destiny, in which an angel-like being shows a man how his world would have been if an event in his past happened differently.
- Here Comes Mr. Jordan/Heaven Can Wait, which both end with the protagonist asking out his “soulmate from another life” for a cup of coffee, and her denying.
[edit] External links
- The Family Man at the Internet Movie Database
- The Family Man at Allmovie
- The Family Man at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Family Man at Metacritic
- The Family Man at Box Office Mojo
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