Michael's Movie Grade: C
An enjoyable comedy.
This movie is a bit of a riff on Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1947) and Wim Wender's Wings of Desire (1987) (the opening shot is very much an homage to the latter). The story has an angel deciding to show a down on his luck man living in his car that the life of the wealthy isn't all it is cracked up to be by switching the lives of him and a very wealthy man who fired him. However, this seems to prove the opposite as he loves his new wealthy easy lifestyle.
The premise itself is quite clever and works as a subversion of the typical stories of how wealth solves everything. However, what really makes this movie is Keanu Reeves as the angel. This is simply a perfect role for him. He perfectly captures the innocence and naivety of this character. In lesser hands this could have come off as cloying or annoying but with him it comes off as perfectly natural and charming. He also does a wonderful job of playing the character as he becomes more worldly and jaded without losing any of that initial charm and likability.
For a comedy the humor is pretty hit and miss. There are plenty of jokes that come off as forced and don't work at all. However, there are also some truly hilarious jokes in here as well. When the comedy works, it really works. It is just too bad we have to sit through some really lousy jokes to get to the great ones though.
This movie has a very good message about empathy and helping those less fortunate as well as how even if your life sucks, there can still be seemingly little things that bring great joy. Unfortunately, we are pretty much beaten over the head with this message, with much of the dialogue feeling too much like a sermon.
This film is quite flawed, but it does still have its charms, and its heart is in the right place.
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