It's A Wonderful Life If You're Extremely Rich

Rating: 4/10 (24 July 2005)

Not a terrible movie, but it isn't the great movie it has pretensions to being. If you're going to release a three hour epic, then more has to happen, or actors have to act better, and scripters have to script better than this.
Brad Pitt comes off best of the star cast, and in spite of looking like a nine-year-old Robert Redford at times, shows - for Tinseltown - a lot of subtlety, and carries off the comic angles to the script. He and Jake Weber as the creepy bad guy spark off each other well.
Anthony Hopkins does his usual irritating 'slow, slow, quick quick slow' performance, and I got the feeling that they could have shaved a welcome half hour off the running time without his pregnant - er - pauses. And, er... portentous - um - procrastinations. Get on with it, man! Stop mumbling! The script is turgid enough!
Clare, the totty, nods her head a lot. A hell of a lot. The face of L'Oreal 2001, I gather. I wonder how they got her to keep her head still long enough for the photos? This film may well have stalled her movie career, but at least she got three hours for her showreel.
The supporting cast are pretty good on the whole; Jake Weber makes the ridiculous maguffin about the company takeover almost credible. But the Quince character (Jeffrey Tambor) has no place in a global media empire, even if he did marry the boss's frumpy daughter (a good turn from Marcia Gay Harden). And the character's obviously gay; they could have ramped that up. Even the outrageous Bill-Joe relationship is not commented on by supposedly high-powered executives. Brad's too pretty!
The main plot about Death hanging about the old man gives you enough to think about to sustain your interest (kinda Bergman) until the immeasurably tedious and tacky party sequence. Then you stop caring, and begin to wonder about things, like:
If he's a media tycoon, where did he get such a terrible band? (They make James Last sound like Guns 'n' Roses)
Why does he spend most of his 65th birthday party in his home office when he's just retired - knowing he's going to die?
Why are none of the members of the board at his party, when they're all available for a phone conference?
Who cares whether overprivileged stuffed shirts live or die anyway?
And the big twist: (SPOILER)
Right, so Death leaves Brad Pitt's body, and takes Anthony Hopkins anyway. I read you that far. But it's got more holes than a cheese grater. How come Brad - suddenly even goofier - is physically 100%? Didn't the hospital, where the daughter Susan is such a brilliant part-time resident, hear about the accident? So do they never find Bill Parrish's body in the grounds? And do Susan and Joe - who must have to change his name - never resolve how he disappeared off the street and woke up weeks later at her Dad's party? Didn't his family miss him? And how come Death can't tie a tie, but knows enough to wash, shave, and change his boxer shorts regularly?
You see, you start to ask these things in the pauses and longeurs of this movie, of which there is an abundance towards the end. Someone has already mentioned the annoyance of watching the angst of the fabulously wealthy. The main problem is the time it takes to get there, and your disbelief is unsuspended about half an hour short. The plot device is strong, but not THAT strong.