The Second Most Overrated Movie Of All Time

Rating: 2/10 (26 May 2009)

The 1946 audience quite correctly stayed away in droves, making IAWL a box office flop. Generations later, after its initial failure, after public domain, after the not even born when it came out pseudo critics have somehow brainwashed almost everyone under 40 into believing IAWL is a Christmas classic, we must face the fact that IAWL is not only not a great movie, it's not even a good movie.
Treacly, sappy, overlong, exasperatingly predictable fairy tale with just two good scenes and a main character devoid of interest, empathy or sympathy, IAWL is an exercise in futility at every turn. To begin, this is closer to James Stewart's worst performance than his best; George Bailey is a dreamer with his thoughts in the stars, rather than focused on the very big problem at hand. He's a naive, crybaby whiner with just the right mix of stupid to make him truly annoying to one and all. And he takes forever to realize Clarence is an Angel; I mean, how many miracles does it take?
This turkey comes to life only twice - the scene between young George and the druggist, played by the always great H.B. Warner, in which George (brilliantly portrayed throughout by the underrated child actor Bobby Anderson) stops the grieving Warner - who has learned of his son's death - from dispensing a fatal dose of the wrong medication to an elderly customer; and the ending, which, while just as sugar-sweet as the rest of the movie, is so well crafted, it works wonderfully well, giving the film a 2 on the scale of 10