Tim Clouse’s review published on Letterboxd:
To me, if you take the Christmas out of It's a Wonderful Life you would still have a great movie. I think this is one of the greatest movies of all time. The fact that is a Christmas movie lowers its statue, but not how much it is beloved by audiences after more than 75 years.
George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) is an everyman that faces a crisis of faith and thinks his life isn't worth living and contemplates suicide. The movie has a dark mood that is not common in the films directed by Frank Capra and takes its subject seriously without resulting to a lot of sentiment and social commentary. This is sentimental, but there is a universal quality to this film that rises above all other Christmas movies. The moodiness is achieved with the great sets and cinematography that fits the mood of the film. Even the snow was a new innovation with using a mixture of soap flakes instead of raw corn flakes. The acting is also incredible especially by Stewart who was still raw from his time in the service during World War II. This is a movie that I personally love and the message behind it is enough to make it a classic.
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