The Family Man (2000)
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 127
Fresh: 67 | Rotten: 60
Despite good performances by Cage and especially by Leoni, The Family Man is too predictable and derivative to add anything new to the Christmas genre. Also, it sinks under its sentimentality.
Average Rating: 4.6/10
Critic Reviews: 33
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 22
Despite good performances by Cage and especially by Leoni, The Family Man is too predictable and derivative to add anything new to the Christmas genre. Also, it sinks under its sentimentality.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 175,467
My Rating
Movie Info
In this whimsical romantic comedy that recalls It's a Wonderful Life, Nicolas Cage plays Jack Campbell, a workaholic bachelor who gets to see what his life might have been like had he stayed with his old sweetheart, Kate (Tea Leoni). Thirteen years before, Jack accepted a brokerage internship that marred his relationship with Kate, under the promise that they would only be separated one year. But much later, Jack has become an urban Wall Street exec with no wife or family of his own, and a
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Cast
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Nicolas Cage
Jack Campbell -
Téa Leoni
Kate -
Don Cheadle
Cash -
Jeremy Piven
Arnie -
Saul Rubinek
Alan Mintz -
Josef Sommer
Lassiter -
Makenzie Vega
Annie -
Ryan Milkovich
Josh -
Jake Milkovich
Josh -
Lisa Thornhill
Evelyn -
Harve Presnell
Big Ed -
Mary Beth Hurt
Adelle -
Amber Valletta
Paula -
Francine York
Lorraine -
John O'Donohue
Tony the Doorman -
Daniel Whitner
Frank the Security Man -
Tarri Markel
Neighbor/Party Guest -
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The Family Man Trailer & Photos
All Critics (130) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (68) | Rotten (61) | DVD (19)
It's rare that an American movie lets slip such a snobbish distaste for the humdrum lives of its blue-collar audience base, but of course it doesn't last.
Top CriticA series of moments, sentimental and comic, that never do add up to a coherent fable.
The outsize ticky tackiness of Jack's new life has been stitched together out of the broadest possible series of middle American clichés.
Too much of the movie is pure formula nonsense.
It's the sort of steamroller seasonal entertainment calculated to make us average folks out here feel temporarily warm and happy about our averageness.
The absolute choices it forces on its hapless hero are far too mutually exclusive to be credible.
Pleasant movie despite some predictability.
Ratner isn't a capable enough director to work the alchemy needed to make this cheese into gold.
Leoni is a revelation. Vibrant and gorgeous, she plays her role of the determined mother in love with teasing, salty charm, providing just enough grit to save the film from Ratner's slushy direction.
A hunk of sentimental fluff that boasts an often-overstated performance by Cage and an annoying turn by Leoni.
I voted for the happy ending, thusly, my enjoyment was diminished.
If you're looking for a heartfelt, feel-good holiday movie, just give in and enjoy.
One of the few films this season able to offer something likely to entertain almost everyone.
The makers of The Family Man were trying to do a kind of reverse It's a Wonderful Life without ever realizing that it doesn't work on paper, much less on the screen.
Redeems itself with raw emotion and the evocative force of love.
A holiday film Joe Lieberman could love, unembarrassed by its wholesome, sugary pro-family message.
Cage's delivery of the Big Final Speech is strained and uncomfortable, and the film's ending is unsatisfying, offering a conflicted message and only a meager chance of hope.
Perfect feel-good Christmas-period family entertainment. Highly recommended.
Cage and Leoni are cute together and struggle mightily, but they can't overcome this sinking ship of a script by David Diamond and David Weissman that telegraphs the ending in the first 20 minutes.
There is not a lot wrong with The Family Man, except for an almost total lack of surprise and a nasty attitude toward exactly the people who are supposed to pay money to watch it.
Okay, so this is kinda corny but hey, it's a Christmas movie, what do you expect? Plus, it's so well done that it doesn't matter that it's formulaic and not very deep.
Audience Reviews for The Family Man
Super Reviewer
1 Cage wakes up surrounded by kids and associated mess
2 Runs around shocked by the fact that all his rich pals don't recognise him
3 Is horrified by nappies
4 Has a trademark Cage rant about how crappy his new life is
5 Finally learns "what's important"
6 Is dumped back in his old life, to his dismay
7 *Hallmark moment*
CREDITS
As you can see, The Family Man follows the formula of the feelgood holiday movie to the letter and will warm either your heart or your sick bucket depending on taste. As a film, I'd have to say it's too long and not particularly funny although Don Cheadle's all too brief appearance is reasonably enjoyable. I would have to point out that I doubt that anyone involved in producing this film has to clip coupons or shop at K Mart, so being told by a bunch of rich people that "money isn't everything" smacks of hypocrisy AT BEST. At least I got to see Tea Leoni dancing in the shower which almost makes up for the two hours I wasted watching this predictable pap.
Super Reviewer
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