It's A Wonderful Life, It's A Wonderful Movie

Rating: 10/10 (24 December 2011)

It's A Wonderful Life is a sort of retelling of A Christmas Carol. But instead of showing a man the joy of Christmas, it's showing a man the joy one man's life can bring to others and himself.
George Bailey(James Stewart)is going through a rough time during the holiday season. Nearly everyone in town starts to pray for him when they notice and that gets the angels attention. Joseph begins telling another angel Clarence the story of George's life. Throughout his childhood and early adulthood George made sacrifices for the good of his friends and family. He saved his brother from drowning in an icy lake, which cost him all hearing in his left ear, and stopped his boss from delivering a prescription to a child that he mistakenly filled with poison out of grief for the loss of his son.
All George wants to do with his life is to go see the world. He tells his dream to a local girl, Mary(Donna Reed) who has had a secret crush on George since they were kids. He's decided to wait until his brother, Harry graduates so he can replace him to work with their father at their Business and Loan company. On the night of his brother's graduation they find out his father had a fatal stroke. A business rival, Mr. Potter(Lionel Barrymore)sees this as the opportunity to stop loans to the poor. The only way the board of directors will refuse his proposal is if George runs the business in his father's stead.
George continues to sacrifice by letting Harry get a better job and continue to look after the family business. He eventually returns Mary's affections and they get married. Before they can leave they see a run on the bank and give everyone a piece of their honeymoon money.
These types of sacrifices go on for awhile and George continues to do things for the benefit of his community, even when he is offered a better job with Potter that would give him the opportunity to see the world. But on Christmas Eve his Uncle Billy loses money that was meant to be put in the bank for the business. Without it George could go to jail. This depresses George and takes his anger out on his family before trying to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. He's stopped by Clarence who reveals himself to be his guardian angel. George wishes that he was never born because he feels he accomplished nothing with his life. Clarence grants his wish and George sees that the town has gone completely under the control of Mr. Potter. His brother died in the lake years ago, his old boss was sent to prison for poisoning the kid, Potter owns all the stores and has turned the Bailey building into a strip club, and Mary is unmarried.
George wishes himself back to life and begins to appreciate that he has accomplished many things. The people of Bedford Falls help him by pitching in to give him the money they lost and keep him out of jail. Clarence gets his wings and George realizes that he did make a difference.
This movie is a classic Christmas movie. I may not have done the movie justice by summing the plot up but I assure you you won't regret watching it.
10/10 A+ Just perfect.