It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, & Frank Capra

Directed by Frank Capra

1998 List Ranking: 11

2007 List Ranking: 20

In case anyone doesn’t know it, Christmas is my favorite holiday, hands down. Sure, Halloween is fun (even if I don’t like getting scared), but Christmas just stirs such wonderful feelings inside me that I look forward to it all year long. Decorating, looking at lights, buying gifts (yay capitalism!), and spending time with loved ones…it really is the most wonderful time of the year. I will say, however, that one thing I rarely do is watch Christmas movies. There are a couple of television specials that I grew up with (A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas come to mind), and at least one more-modern classic (Love, Actually), but beyond that…I haven’t really seen that many.

George (James Stewart) and Mary (Donna Reed) as the Baileys with their children

I have wanted to see It’s a Wonderful Life for many many years (I even DVR-ed it one year and tried to watch it, but after a 8+ hour shift at Disneyland and then a 90-minute drive home, I made it maybe five minutes in before passing out). If you haven’t seen it, the film follows George Bailey, played (for like the 10th film on this list) by James Stewart, a young man with big dreams who slowly gets those dreams chipped away from him, until he wants to commit suicide (which is against the law in the town of Bedford Falls, which…how do they enforce that?). At that point, an angel named Clarence, attempting to receive his wings, shows George what the town would be like if he wasn’t born.

So, going into this film, I felt that the attempted suicide/see what life is like aspect was the bulk of the film. Sort of like A Christmas Carol with a twist. Imagine my surprise when, after 90 minutes, we STILL weren’t at that point. It became somewhat aggravating: where was the movie I thought I was going to watch? I understand the need to set up George’s various setbacks, but seriously: GET ON WITH IT. When we do finally get to see Bedford Falls without George’s effect, it’s done so quickly that I literally said, “That’s IT?!”. I know that it’s not the film itself’s fault that it’s been built up as something that it wasn’t, but I have to blame SOMETHING.

George is going a little crazy…

James Stewart once again gives a great performance; his derangement as his world falls apart is expertly portrayed and his redemption at the end feels genuine. Also, seeing him awkwardly dance near the beginning of the film was a delight. Stewart plays the gradual destruction of his dreams with a nice stoicism that slowly becomes more and more weighty, so kudos to him for keeping track of that (seeing as this film, most likely, was filmed out of sequence). His famous scene, in which he talks of lassoing the moon and pulling it down, is done extremely well. Donna Reed also gives a great performance as George’s loving and patient wife Mary. Her ingenuity (particularly on their wedding day) endeared her to me quickly. I did roll my eyes a bit that in the alternate universe, she’s just a spinster librarian, because god forbid she marry anyone else other than George (yes, I know it’s probably a soul mate thing, but if the country’s divorce rate tells us anything, lots of people don’t marry their soul mates).

George speaks out against greed

The film is a great exploration of the breaking down of an idealistic young man until he can’t live with himself; it feels very much like a precursor of shows like Breaking Bad. Stewart’s earlier role in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington has similar undertones, but it’s taken to a further extreme here. There is also an interesting exploration of greed versus doing what is right; Stewart gives a great speech after the death of his father about the dangers of allowing capitalist greed consume everything that hard-working people have fought for, and it was a nice standout moment. Seeing the chipping away of George’s hopes, dreams, and principles was very interesting…if that’s the movie I thought I was seeing.

Clarence (Henry Travers) visits George

Here’s probably the most controversial statement I’m going to make in this whole review: It’s a Wonderful Life, like Die Hard and Batman Returns, is NOT a Christmas movie. To me, for a movie to be a Christmas movie, the holiday has to play a significant part of the plot, not just be set during that time of the year. In It’s a Wonderful Life, the holiday only comes up at the end, and honestly, you could substitute any holiday (or even none at all), and the movie wouldn’t be effected at all. Sure, some of the visuals wouldn’t be as interesting, but as the holiday has zero impact, I move that this film be removed from Christmas movie lists immediately.

(Also, can we talk about the fact that, according to this movie, George not being born causes it not to snow anymore? Did you know that the birth of certain children can effect the weather some 30-odd years later? I SURE DIDN’T)

I think my displeasure at this film stems mostly from being mislead by…society, I suppose, that the film was what it isn’t. I was expecting a twist on A Christmas Carol, and instead I got LET’S TEAR THIS MAN DOWN BIT BY BIT. It’s not objectively bad if you know what you’re getting into, but if you don’t, then it’s a bit jarring and ends up feeling unnecessarily dragged out.

And it’s definitely not a Christmas movie.

FINAL GRADE: B