In It Could Happen to You, a cop and a waitress find love and good fortune. Nicholas Cage and Bridget Fonda star in the romantic dramedy.
Director Andrew Bergman (Honeymoon in Vegas; The Freshman) has made an irresistible populist heart warmer worthy of Frank Capra. It Could Happen to You is now streaming at Netflix and Amazon.
A promise is a promise
Charlie Lang (Cage) plays a cop with a heart of gold who can’t please his money grubbing wife Muriel (Rosie Perez). He walks the beat in Queens, New York with his partner Bo (Wendell Pierce).
An everyday hero, Charlie is content with his modest fortune. The consummate do-gooder foils a neighborhood robbery one day. He even carries a blind man across a busy street.
It Could Happen to You is filled with Charlie’s rare gratitude and open-heartedness. One day he meets Yvonne (Fonda), a struggling waitress at a local diner.
Yvonne is good and decent even on her worst day. When Charlie discovers he doesn’t have tip money, he promises to split his lottery prize with her should he win. “Yeah, right,” Yvonne replies.
A promise is a promise
Yet Charlie does things because they’re right, not because they’re easy. Even after he wins the lottery, he feels honor-bound to keep his word. “A promise is a promise,” he says.
Perez is uproarious because she’s so familiar. She could be that inner voice in each of us, always demanding: “Show me the money!” Muriel takes love for granted. Only money will make her happy, she believes.
Jealousy and greed possess Muriel even more after the jackpot. Finally, she thinks she can do better than her too-honest hubby. Seymour Cassel plays the suave Jack Gross.
The late Isaac Hayes is enigmatic and soulful as Angel, the narrator who figures in the tale’s surprise ending. Virtue and generosity never die in this uplifting gem.
If you like It Could Happen to You, you might enjoy: Moonstruck; Sleepless in Seattle; The American President.
It Could Happen to You / 1994 / PG / 1 hour, 41 min
Cast Overview: Nicholas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez, Wendell Pierce, Isaac Hayes, Victor Rojas, Seymour Cassel, Stanley Tucci, J. E. Freeman, Red Buttons, Richard Jenkins
Director: Andrew Bergman
Genres: Romance, Dramedy
