Too much politics

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2001)

What bothers me about Capra is that seemingly all his movies have the same vague political message, vehemently delivered, a kind of New Deal digest: thin cats of the world unite! The fat cats are giving you a bad case of Great Depression. That's too simplistic! Think about it: if the powerful are invariably evil, maybe there's something wrong with the system. This movie could be seen as nothing but political allegory disguised as sentimentality. But it succeeds despite itself. The cinematography is stunning, the acting inspired, and it has one of the most wrenching scenes on film: when Stewart meets his wife in the street, a spinster who never met him and who runs away in horror. Overwrought? Perhaps. But also effective. At least two Capra films mention suicide, a most unusual topic in films. The unrealistic happy ending isn't really unwelcome. Who cares about realism? Movies tell us how things should be, not only how they are.