Take one dashing Wall Street tycoon, one Christmas Eve, a little introspection, a mischievous angel and what've you got? "The Family Man."
A year 2001 "It's a Wonderful Life" it's not, even if it is Christmas. But it does have Nicolas Cage. When Cage isn't jumping out of airplanes or cars, he can be quite fetching and romantic, which he sometimes is here, when he isn't being confirmed bachelor and Wall Street success Jack Campbell.
It seems Campbell gets to wondering what things would have been like if he had married his true love, his college sweetheart, Kate (Tea Leoni), 13 years earlier. Next thing you know he is in the wilds of suburban New Jersey with Kate and family, courtesy of the angel (Don Cheadle).
Caught between this alternative reality, a happy family man with two children, and his upscale Wall Street career, which will he choose?
Critics agree that no man in possession of his senses would ever leave Kate. There is a body of thought that has it no woman would ever leave Nicolas Cage. Oh . . . what to do!
Directed by Bret Ratner (no Frank Capra), it is written by David Diamond and David Weissman. It is rated PG-13 for sensuality and some language. Be forewarned – it's two hours long.
It starts Thursday at Market Square East.