IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Comedy / Drama / Fantasy

Director: Frank Capra

Cast: Jimmy Stewart / Donna Reed / Lionel Barrymore

Plot

Small town good guy George Bailey has always longed for a different life, until a visit from an angel on Christmas teaches him to value the life he has.

What I Liked

I'm a day late with this post, considering it's a Christmas classic, but true classics are good at any time of year, so...

It’s easy to see why “It’s a Wonderful Life” remains one of the most beloved motion pictures ever made more than six decades after its initial release.  With a likeable hero, a timeless story, a warm message, and the enviously quaint Bedford Falls as a setting, the movie is as easily digestible for mass consumption as movies get.  With nearly every scene worthy of a Normal Rockwell painting and its Christmas atmosphere, it stands with “Miracle on 34^th Street” and “A Christmas Story” as perfectly nostalgic family movies that became sentimental favorites thanks to repeated reruns on television for generations after generation.

Of course no one can play the everyman with a heart of gold better than Jimmy Stewart, and here he’s at his endearing, “aww shucks” best.  More impressively, when things turn bad for George Bailey and that golden heart breaks, Stewart shows his range by rendering the character even more fascinating.  The ever-responsible and giving Bailey becomes consumed with anger, self-loathing, and guilt.  By the time he collapses into a chair at home, he's virtually unrecognizable as the idealistic fellow at the film's start.  It’s no wonder the Stewart was a favorite of director Frank Capra, who so successfully matched the actor's gangly charisma and versatile talent with his own penchant for inspiring Americana in such other classics as “You Can’t Take It With You” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”  (See if you can spot the sly reference to one of these on a newspaper headline early in the film.)

What I Didn’t Like

Despite it’s having many of the facets that make Stewart and Capra so admired by lovers of classic Hollywood and its stature as one of the most iconic American films, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was not a major hit upon its release.  I'm not qualified to hypothesize why that was, but I can say why today I don’t consider it one of my favorite films.  Overall, it of course stands the test of time better than most of the movies of the era, but with its sappy praise of small town America and the silliness of its fantasy elements, there are certainly elements that feel childish, if not dated.  It’s “Saturday Evening Post” idealism, though effective escapism, feels out-of-touch for this viewer from a postmodern America, where you’re not on a first name basis with your milk man, there's more than one cab driver in town, and Donna Reed doesn't cook your meals.

Most Memorable Scene

My favorite scene is when George and Mary walk home from the high school dance.  Despite both actors having pop culture legacies much larger than their characters, they still manage to convince the viewer that the characters have known each other since childhood and are truly relaxed in each other’s company.  Stewart and Reed do have an enjoyable chemistry here that makes for the movie’s most enjoyable moments.

My Rating: 4 out of 5