It's a Wonderful Life is smart, legendary, and inspiring.

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2003)

It's a Wonderful Life
The snow falls on a dark winter night, and lands on even darker waters. A lone man stands on the bridge above a swirling black river, at the end of his rope. He feels like he would be better off not born at all, so it becomes up to a goofy, guardian angel to show the hopeless George Bailey that the world needs him.

George Bailey is played by Jimmy Stewart who is brilliant. The audience follows him through his whole life of dreaming about the outside world, being held back in Bedford like a prisoner. Years later, an unfortunate mishap brings the strong George to his knees. `I'm worth more dead then alive,' George says when he hits rock bottom. On every line, it sounded like Jimmy Stewart believed it. He showed a range of real emotions from love to anguish, and he nailed each one of them. He delivered legendary lines masterfully like, `You want the moon? Then I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down for you.' Jimmy had a supporting cast that told the beautiful story like it was meant to be told. George Bailey's rival, Mr. Potter, was perfectly evil. He had the whole audience grinding their teeth with indignation every time Mr. Potter appeared on the screen. Because every great protagonist needs a great antagonist, Mr. Potter was perfectly cast and perfectly acted.

And what would genius acting be if we the audience couldn't see it? Because the photographers of `It's a Wonderful Life' captured all the great moments very smartly. It showed the story and brought the pages of the screenplay to life, with close ups of George in tears, and wide shots of the quaint Bedford Falls. The sets of Bedford falls were all very charming and a good representation of the times. A time when whole towns were owned by corporations or old men in suits.

The suits and dresses of all the characters were real and didn't take any attention away from the story. The aging make-up on George's friends in the future was believable on everyone except on Marry Bailey. She still looked young as an `old maid', and all the make-up in the world couldn't hide how hot Donna Reed was. Musically, `It's a Wonderful Life' was perfect and timeless. The director (Frank Capra) chose to use a beautiful orchestra with arrangements that matched every mood of the story.
Once in a life time a story like `It's a Wonderful Life' comes along, and when Frank Capra held the pages of this tale in his hands, he didn't let go of it. Frank once said, `I've been waiting my whole life for a story like this.' In fact, he took full advantage of the situation and he made this film into the work of art that it deserved to be. The poignant tale of a man finding hope at the end of a long and hard road, was nothing less then heart warming. This poorly written review isn't worthy to analyze such a masterpiece of the cinema. And a masterpiece can't be enjoyed by reading about it, so I recommend everyone to see this A+ film, `It's a Wonderful Life'.