As cliché as it may have become to say so at this point, it's been a tough year, and I cannot deny it. The moment where George first truly begins to lose hope and fall apart was the most painful scene for me to watch this time around. Without getting too personal, I too have come home irritable, frustrated, and overwhelmed, just like he does after Uncle Billy loses the money, more times than I can count or than I'd care to admit over the course of this past year. George breaking down and sobbing at the bar starts to hit a little closer to home with every viewing.

“God... Oh God... Dear father in heaven... I'm not a praying man, but if you're up there, and you can hear me, show me the way. I'm at the end of my rope. I... Show me the way, Oh God.”

And it's not like I can, of reasonably sound mind and body, claim to be alone in this position. But thankfully for all of us back home, just under seventy-five years ago a man named Frank Capra decided he would gift the world with what is quite possibly the warmest, most joyous, most beautiful, and most life-affirming movie of all time. There's a reason so many of us around the globe return to it year after year, finding comfort and solace in its frames whenever things take a turn for the worse, even all this time later: there is, quite simply put, not a note out of place in this film. I'm discovering fresh, gemstone details from this goldmine of a screenplay four viewings in, and unearthing nuances I'd never before noticed in Jimmy Stewart's performance.

Speaking of the man himself, he is so consistently charming, empathetic, vulnerable, and most crucially of all, genuine here. It's not enough to describe his screen presence as 'captivating'. It's not simply an open-and-shut case of saying he 'doesn't miss a beat' or that he 'owns this role', he positively transcends it. He is George Bailey. The man truly was one of the all-time greats, and I'm resolving to fill in some of the most glaringly obvious blindspots of mine amidst his filmography over this coming year.

“Get me back... Help me, Clarence, please... I want to live again... Please, God, let me live again.”

I was beginning to think I would be fine and not cry this time around, and then Harry stood up and said “a toast to my big brother George, the richest man in town,” and that was it, I was a goner.

Happy Christmas folks, one and all! I hope this film's messages of hope, perseverance and selflessness are as much of a comfort and encouragement to you as they were to me. And always remember, no man is a failure who has friends.