It's a Wonderful Life Reviews
Top CriticCapra is an old-time movie craftsman, the master of every trick in the bag, and in many ways he is more at home with the medium than any other Hollywood director. But all of his details give the impression of contrived effect.
Flick Filosopher
It isn't a terrible film by any means, and it's easy to see why people revere it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 6/10
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
It suits a lot of people, but I find it hypocritical and false.
| Original Score: 2/5
It's a Wonderful Life is about hunger. It's about greed. It's about the many ways a good man is stymied. Finally, it's about George Bailey, whose decency prevents him even from killing himself.
The Nation
I wasn't able to get reasonably straight about it for quite a while. I still think it has a good deal of charm and quality, enough natural talent involved in it to make ten pictures ten times as good, and terrific vitality or, rather, vigor.
Common Sense Media
This classic delivers warmth all year long.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Bullz-Eye.com
It ain't just hype; it really is a true holiday classic.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
If you can separate - or rescue - It's a Wonderful Life from its niche as a Christmas classic, you might discover a film that swings wildly from noirlike starkness to saccharine bathos.
Full Review
| Original Score: 87/100
What is remarkable about It's a Wonderful Life is how well it holds up over the years; it's one of those ageless movies, like Casablanca or The Third Man, that improves with age.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Combine the characters, the story, the message, and the acting, and it's easy to see why It's a Wonderful Life isn't just a holiday favorite, but a great movie by almost any standards.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Arizona Daily Star
Not only as one of the best Christmas movies, but THE Christmas movie.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Slant Magazine
Without overlooking its lapses into populist bathos, it's necessary to rescue It's a Wonderful Life from its spot at the centerpiece of untouchable American "classics."
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Combustible Celluloid
By now everyone knows Frank Capra's holiday classic and the tears it so effortlessly conjures up year after year -- but it's easy to forget how truly vicious the film is, and how brilliantly James Stewart rises to the challenge.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
The April-air wholesomeness and humanism of this natural bring back vividly the reminder that, essentially, the screen best offers unselfconscious, forthright entertainment.
Film4
You'd have to possess a very hard heart not to find something to love in this story.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Filmcritic.com
Sometimes we need sweetness, like when we've just eaten a ration of bitter Neil LaBute or Ridley Scott movies.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Regardless of whether or not you believe in angels, it's a wonderful movie.
Apollo Guide
This great American fable is buoyed by its unwavering faith in the wealth of the human spirit.
Full Review
| Original Score: 93/100
