Underrated Films - The Family Man

 

Holy crap! It's already December! Where did the time go? It felt like we just blew through 2025. Well regardless, let's kick off the Christmas season with a holiday film you more than likely never heard of.

The Family Man is a romantic fantasy comedy drama flick that was produced by Beacon Pictures and Saturn Films with Universal Pictures handling distribution. The story was written by David Diamond and David Weissman and directed by Brett Ratner. Yes, the same Brett Ratner that directed all three Rush Hour films and X-Men: The Last Stand.

The story is, Jack Campbell is a wealthy Wall Street executive bachelor with millions of dollars at his disposal. One night after defusing a hostel situation at a convenience store Jack wakes up not in his usual place, but in a suburban New Jersey home and things get weirder when he sees he's married to Kate who's supposed to be his ex-girlfriend but the two also have two kids. Jack quickly figures out this is a life he could've had if he didn't focus solely on his career. But even with this knowledge it leaves him at a crossroads.

Why It's Underrated

Be honest, how many of you actually knew of this movie's existence? Am I not asking you Nicolas Cage fans or movie buffs, I'm asking you casual fans. How many of you knew this was a movie? If you said you didn't know about this, don't worry I'm not gonna shame you. Cause I didn't know about either until last month when I was looking for underrated Christmas movies to review for this blog.

My Thoughts

Okay before I start giving this movie some praise let's get to some of it's slight flaws. One of them being the directing. Despite the Rush Hour films being fun and I'm probably one of the few people you DON'T think X-Men: The Last Stand isn't terrible but just decent, I could never be a big Brett Ratner fan because I never found his directing style to be something to be amazed. Don't get me wrong, he's pretty decent at what he does. But he never could wow me. So yeah, Ratner's directing is serviceable but don't be surprised if you don't gush over any of the shots in this.

Then there's the comedy and drama parts. Now the movie handles both aspects very well. Some of the drama is really good and I did laugh at some of the funnier moments. However there are moments when these two things kind of wobbles. So there's probably gonna be a moment where the drama can undercut a comedic moment or vice versa.

Now let's talk about the good stuff. Starting with my absolute favorite aspect, and that's the fact that never lifestyle is particularly glamorized. Sure Jack's Wall Street executive bachelor lifestyle at first might look good, but the movie actually tells you that no, it can be very lonely. But Jack's alternate version lifestyle were he married his Kate instead of breaking up with her years ago, so that even the married with children lifestyle can be a struggle. We see how Jack and Kate despite being in love and married can occasionally argue, we see the sacrifice they made for the sake of their children, at one point Jack takes alternate Kate to a fancy restaurant and she says "are you sure you can afford this". Which to any of you married guys or women out there probably understand that feeling and/or maybe have said that sentence. The only reason why the more family man was told to be the better life is because Jack was in denial and needed to learn that's what he was doing to himself. He was in a constant state of denial. Which isn't a bad lesson. Cause unless you're dead set on not getting married and having kids, then yes, it's true. A bachelor life with fast cars, lots of money that's yours alone, and sleeping with has many women as you want, can only bring you so much happiness.

The last thing I'll praise is the performances from Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni. While we all love it when Nicolas Cage goes absolutely over the top crazy, it was pretty nice to see him at one point he does play a more serious and focused character. But even thought he's character of John Campbell is focus on his career, loves his money and loves his Ferrari, we also see Cage bring out John's more caring side where he loves Kate and kids that could've been his own. Now I have seen Cage play more serious in his more recent films, Pig being the first one that comes to mind, but I hope one day in the near future he's involved in a big theatrical release that shows this more dialed back side to his acting. Then there's Téa Leoni. The best way to describe her performance is brings warmth and wit to Kate Reynolds. But there's also quite strength to when Leoni has to bring out Kate's motherly side. So if anything she's the emotional anchor to the whole story. And when these two are together I actually felt like they were an actually married couple once we enter the alternate world or "the glimpse" as it's called in the movie.

I actually think you should give The Family Man a watch this Christmas season. Yes it was flaws, but it's still pretty good.

My final rating is, Good.

Well that about wraps it everything up. Come back on Saturday, Dec 6th, for my review of Five Nights at Freddy's 2. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.