Cast: James Stewart, Donna Reed
Director: Frank Capra
Screenplay: Jo Swerling, Frank Capra
Producer: Liberty Films
Running-time: 130 mins
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
From its premise alone - a small-town do-gooder plunges into Christmas despair as tribulations heap up on him like piled snow, whilst the starry heavens wink on him and send a gentle, wingless angel to save this miserable soul - it's destined to be cloyingly sentimental stuff, one that could make film cynics huff-and-puff and reduce this to corny, mawkish wish-fulfilment. Instead, this one's made it as a "Christmas classic", one that's been running for years on television like an annual feast, beloved by both sides of the family spectrum, be it Nan, Grandad, Mum, a bit of Dad, and Child. The Dog's quite possibly seen this one, too, on a dozy post-turkey dinner. Sure, the high-school sequences in the beginning have now appeared stilted and stereotyped, but this is a film that builds one sentiment after another, that in the end, in an overtly heart-wrenching climax, it's hard not to be moved and overwhelmed by the simplicity of Frank Capra's message picture.
And it's not all sugar-coated loveliness, there are darker themes It's a Wonderful Life strays into: contemplation of suicide on a Christmas night, existentialism, economic breakdown and corporate evil, and Capra is not afraid to touch these territories. But he remains true to the values to family life and the sense of goodness, which thankfully the film does not preachify. Okay, some heavenly bodies in the galaxy above sparkle and talk like they do in a nursery puppet show, but that's a minor gripe. What's remarkable is that Capra does not intellectualise the story, conveying pure emotions from a man who desired to travel the world and live up to his dreams but is leashed on his community, a responsibility that he simply cannot shake off. The film then meddles on fantasy elements such as guardian angels and visions as everyman George Bailey is transported into a hellish netherworld where his identity is wiped out, in a sequence so rivetingly portrayed where Bailey sees the town without his existence, a morally crumbling Pottersville. It's a beautiful, stirring message of how we influence lives around us even in the smallest of ways. And come the glorious denouement, only the hardest of hearts shall be left untouched.
A genuinely redemptive film that goes beyond its pigeonholed "Christmas classic" status. Frank Capra conjures a magic trick here, a decidedly dark message-movie with a feel-good factor that is rarely delivered even from the most populist of directors today. And James Stewart has rarely been better. It will make you laugh, be fascinated and then sob into your glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Review by The Moviejerk © Janz
