9/10
This is how a modern romantic comedy should look like
26 February 2006
If you judge "It Could Happen to you" by its amount of realistic situations and characters, you'll probably give it a 4 out of 10. But, who cares about realism here? It's like a modern fairy tale, Frank Capra transported into the 90s. There's a wonderful storyline (Cop gives waitress a 2 million dollar tip), which apparently is even based on real-life events. Nicolas Cage plays the most honest cop imaginable, and he proves he can play a romantic lead role just as well as a dramatic action/thriller one. His character is not exactly 100 percent realistic, but that's not a problem, this is Hollywood for heaven's sake.

Even better than Cage is his female leading lady: the fascinating Bridget Fonda. Fonda is a wonderful actress who can play both a cute character like her waitress Yvonne here and more challenging roles like the LadyMacBeth-similar one in "A Simple Plan". Unfortunately she never had the career of a Julia Roberts but she is in fact more talented and better looking. Throughout the whole movie she gives a good performance and looks gorgeous. If I had the choice of giving a waitress the lottery money or not and the woman looked like Fonda I might even give it to her. Of course there aren't so many waitresses out there that look (and behave) as charming as her and chances are low I'll ever win two millions in the lottery.

Also notable is the wonderful chemistry between Cage and Fonda. As for the supporting roles special mention has to go to Perez. Although you wonder why Cage married her in the first place, she gives a humorous and entertaining performance. Of course there's kitsch but that's not necessarily bad. Good kitsch can be wonderful and this film, that has an absolutely great happy ending, serves as a perfect example of how a romantic comedy should be filmed. It's better than "Pretty Woman".
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