The Family Man

Nicolas Cage makes a gosh-darn-good Jimmy Stewart substitute here as a Wall Street playboy who's taught a lesson in life's priorities when he gets Frank Capra-ed into an alternative suburban reality that includes a wife (Téa Leoni), kids, a minivan, a mortgage and a job selling tires for his father-in-law. His sentimental and frequently funny journey from cocky, single millionaire to happy middle-income family man is predictable, underwritten and a bit too easy, but Cage is so good at the perplexed instant papa routine that he carries the film through all its many frailties--including the lack of motivation for the cryptic seraph (Don Cheadle) who keeps jerking his life around when Cage wasn't such a bad guy originally. A pleasing, although frequently irrational, hybrid that injects modern sensibilities into an old-fashioned, warm-and-fuzzy script, The Family Man is a strong optional purchase. (R. Blackwelder)