Atta boy, Capra!

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2002)

This movie is almost perfect. It is infinitely easy to suspend one's disbelief and be completely immersed in this movie. You forget that those are actors up there on the screen (with the exception of the young Ms Grimes. I'm afraid that I must agree with a previous comment. Surely there were better child actresses available.) Noting that exception, I must say that the rest of the casting was perfect.
I'm not going to rehash the plot. I just wanted to make some observances.
Possible spoiler:

A dissenting comment was written by a person that surely must be extremely naive. It is as follows:
"But the worst flaw? THEY NEVER GET BACK THE MONEY THAT WAS STOLEN. It is morally unacceptable that this guy doesn't get punished and the townspeople have to rush in with a bailout."
Don't you know, young sir, that for those of us who attempt to live our lives correctly, there are many others living around us that get away with murder and are never punished or found out. The good people of the town of Bedford Falls didn't know what happened to the money. They only knew that they loved George Bailey and were willing to help him out of a bad situation. I wish all the miscreants of this world would be punished. Sadly, that's not the case, so you must give Capra credit for being realistic here.
In spite of the untalented young Ms. Grimes, in spite of the water that was supposed to be a rushing river looking like a studio tank that Clarence and George jumped into, I still give this movie a perfect 10.