I can watch this movie over and over again and never tire of it. And every time I wake up the next morning, no, not in a "glimpse", but with a good feeling. It's like "It's A Wonderful Life", "A Christmas Carol" and "When Harry Met Sally" all rolled into one.
The story is hugely entertaining, and Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni are doing an excellent job in their roles. It's also very heart-warming and perfect to watch in the run-up for Christmas, although it's probably perfectly watchable at any time of the year.
But what, in my view, sets this film apart from others in this genre, is the fact that it can actually bee seen as plausible. One can easily think of the "glimpse" as a simple (albeit rather long) dream of what could have been. So, if you look at it this way, it will make the whole story totally believable and realistic, as it can all be explained without any "magic".
For those, however, who prefer it to be "magical", they can take the "glimpse" as what it is presented as in the movie, a several-month long, temporary "excursion" into another life of Jack Campbell. Either way, it totally works, and I cannot think of anyone watching the film who will not reconsider their own values in life and perhaps make some changes, even if they may seem insignificant ones (just trying to take work that little bit less seriously and devoting that little bit more time to the family will go a long way).
When I saw it for the first time, I kind of expected an ending where Jack would, after realising what he had been missing out on in the past 13 years, wake up again in the New Jersey house, surrounded by his wife Kate and the two children, essentially changing 13 years of his past. It's what probably most other directors would have done with the story. Thankfully, however, Brett Ratner resisted the temptation, and I'm grateful for that!
I think this is the biggest of many things that really make the movie work and make it relevant. Not only does it teach us important values in life, but it also shows that however much we would wish to, we cannot go back in time and take another path at a juncture in life where we feel that we made the wrong decision. What's past is past, but it's never too late to change your ways.
So Jack may not live in that suburban house with two kids that he had grown to love in his "glimpse" (or dream?), but he can make himself a better person by putting the important things in life first and start anew together with Kate. He can't re-capture what he had lost (or more accurately, never had), but he can do something about the future. And so can we.
And that's probably the thing I like best about this movie. It's not just some fairytale story, but it's something we can actually learn from and apply in real life.
The story is hugely entertaining, and Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni are doing an excellent job in their roles. It's also very heart-warming and perfect to watch in the run-up for Christmas, although it's probably perfectly watchable at any time of the year.
But what, in my view, sets this film apart from others in this genre, is the fact that it can actually bee seen as plausible. One can easily think of the "glimpse" as a simple (albeit rather long) dream of what could have been. So, if you look at it this way, it will make the whole story totally believable and realistic, as it can all be explained without any "magic".
For those, however, who prefer it to be "magical", they can take the "glimpse" as what it is presented as in the movie, a several-month long, temporary "excursion" into another life of Jack Campbell. Either way, it totally works, and I cannot think of anyone watching the film who will not reconsider their own values in life and perhaps make some changes, even if they may seem insignificant ones (just trying to take work that little bit less seriously and devoting that little bit more time to the family will go a long way).
When I saw it for the first time, I kind of expected an ending where Jack would, after realising what he had been missing out on in the past 13 years, wake up again in the New Jersey house, surrounded by his wife Kate and the two children, essentially changing 13 years of his past. It's what probably most other directors would have done with the story. Thankfully, however, Brett Ratner resisted the temptation, and I'm grateful for that!
I think this is the biggest of many things that really make the movie work and make it relevant. Not only does it teach us important values in life, but it also shows that however much we would wish to, we cannot go back in time and take another path at a juncture in life where we feel that we made the wrong decision. What's past is past, but it's never too late to change your ways.
So Jack may not live in that suburban house with two kids that he had grown to love in his "glimpse" (or dream?), but he can make himself a better person by putting the important things in life first and start anew together with Kate. He can't re-capture what he had lost (or more accurately, never had), but he can do something about the future. And so can we.
And that's probably the thing I like best about this movie. It's not just some fairytale story, but it's something we can actually learn from and apply in real life.