Evan Popplestone’s review published on Letterboxd:
"Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"
Legendary director Frank Capra's sentimental fantasy is a perennial feelgood Christmas favourite. Yeah, I know the big day is exactly a month away but hey, it's still a great film whatever the time of year. Some have accused it of being a pro-Communist tract for its scathing portrayal of a ruthless old banker (played with a crusty, decrepit smugness by Lionel Barrymore). However, the biting satire of ruthless, cynical capitalism is as relevant today as it ever has been - and there's also an undeniable streak of all-American individualism and dreaming big here that's less about the then Soviet Union and more about the sheer generosity of spirit that every one of us could possess...
...if only we knew about the impact of our actions on the world. At a dark time in his life, our protagonist George Bailey (James Stewart) contemplates suicide. However, wingless guardian angel Clarence (Henry Travers) decides to show him the errors of his thinking when we, and him, witness a bleak parallel universe in which he doesn't exist.
It's a bold idea that works so brilliantly thanks to two factors: Capra and Stewart. Both of them navigate the happy-go-lucky charm of the highs, and the self-pitying gothic grimness of the lows, so superbly that we can't help being swept along with them for just over two hours.
Wonderful indeed.
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