The Family Man
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| The Family Man | |
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| Directed by | Brett Ratner |
| Produced by | Armyan Bernstein, Thomas A. Bliss, Andrew Z. Davis, James M. Freitag |
| Written by | David Diamond, David Weissman |
| Starring | Nicolas Cage, Téa Leoni, Don Cheadle |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 12 December 2000 (premiere) |
| Running time | 126 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Family Man is a 2000 Brett Ratner film starring Nicolas Cage (as Jack Campbell) and Téa Leoni, about a man who is given a glimpse at what could have been, if he had made a different decision 13 years ago. It is similar to It's a Wonderful Life, in that it starts on Christmas Eve with a life and death situation involving an angel who tries to get the main character (Campbell) to take a long, earnest look at his life. In the end, the protagonists in both movies conclude that a quiet family life is preferrable to achieving huge success and wealth at work, although each movie's protagonist approaches the issue from opposite places initially.
The film has also been compared to Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol because 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. It is likely that the creators of the movie were at least partially inspired by Dickens and It's a Wonderful Life.
[edit] Synopsis
Jack Campbell is a single, wealthy Wall Street merger and aquisition investment banker living the high life in New York City. All that magically changes one morning when he wakes up in a suburban New Jersey bedroom with a wife he never married and two kids he never had — the life he would have led if he had forgone investment banking as a younger man. While he wants to return to his high life, Jack is stuck in a "permanent acid trip" because an angel want to teach the overly confident man a lesson. The angel displaces him into an entirely new world beyond his imaginings: suburban New Jersey. As he lives his life as the "family man," he becomes attached to the family he never had. Later his realization to the meaning of a family life leads him back to the wealthy, yet lonely life. Soon after he returns to reality, he forgoes his 230 billion dollar aquisition deal just to meet his dream wife for the last time.
[edit] Trivia
- The Ferrari driven by Nicolas Cage in the beginning of the movie belongs to long-time New York resident Steven Artsis, who rented it out for the movie shoot. However, the interior driving scenes were done on a mock-up, as the fiberglass of the Ferrari was too weak to support the camera equipment.
- This movie is similar to the movie 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.
[edit] External links
| Films directed by Brett Ratner |
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| Whatever Happened to Mason Reese • Money Talks • Rush Hour • The Family Man • Rush Hour 2 • Red Dragon • After the Sunset • X-Men: The Last Stand • Rush Hour 3 • The Boys From Brazil |
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