It's a Wonderful Life

You've probably noticed the star rating right off the top and assume I'm going to drop some galaxy-brained take on one of the most iconic feel-good holiday movies in existence. Perhaps I'd go in on the lack of consequences for Potter, or how 75% of the movie is stage-setting so the last 25% can deliver the schmaltz, or Capra's depiction of small-town Americana being so sanitized and saccharine, his name became an adjective. Or perhaps I'd discuss the movie's sociopolitical ramifications of showing a rich, greedy capitalist lording over a small town and getting away with theft, and how the community comes together to help one of their own in one the most blatant acts of socialism winning the day ever put on film. And while I consider all of those points to have merit, none of them contribute to my rating of this movie. No, 7/10 here is based, quite simply, on the fact that this just didn't connect with me as deeply as other movies. It is by no means a bad movie, and I absolutely will not dare impeach its legacy or cultural status. For me, it just didn't always click is all. I can't even pinpoint why. I like the performances, Jimmy Stewart never phones it in, he and Donna Reed have fantastic chemistry, Lionel Barrymore is a delicious rat bastard as Mr. Potter, and the direction is sublime. Even the ending, as sticky sweet as it is, fits the movie. All I can say is it just didn't resonate as deeply as I was hoping. I don't think it's a failing of the movie so much as just not being all the way on the movie's wavelength. And I'm okay with that. Even if this won't enter my guaranteed rotation of holiday movies, there's plenty of other so-called classic Christmas movies I'd pass over for this.