What’s a girl to do when she HATES one of the most beloved Christmas movies of all time? It’s A Wonderful Life is an American classic, a perennial favorite, AFI’s #1 most inspiring film of all time, but to me, it’s nails on a chalkboard. I guess all I can do is tell you what you’re in for and let you make up your own mind.
It’s Christmas Eve, and George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) has just discovered that his uncle lost an $8,000 deposit en route to the bank. He realizes that he will not only be held responsible, but that his small building and loan business (the last independently run business in town) will fold, finally allowing the evil Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) to take over the town. George has a sick little girl, ZuZu (Karolyn Grimes), at home, another kid banging obnoxiously on the piano, and he just knows that ruin is imminent. The kids are shocked at his crankiness, but he can’t be expected to put on a happy face all the time, can he? Everybody thinks George is a swell guy, and it’s killing him to know that he’s about to let everyone down in such a monumental way.
Feeling hopeless, George decides he might as well commit suicide. As he stands poised to jump off a bridge, an angel-in-waiting named Clarence (Henry Travers) swoops in to stop him. If he succeeds, Clarence will finally get his wings, so he’s got plenty of motivation to set George straight. “I wish I’d never been born,” George warbles melodramatically, and Clarence proceeds to show him just what the world would be like without him.
We then spend the next four hundred years reliving George’s life in flashback, and seeing all the ways he made the town of Bedford Falls a better place. Well, maybe it’s more like two hours, but it sure can feel like four hundred years. He sees that if he’d never existed, he wouldn’t have been there to save his brother’s life. His lovely wife Mary (Donna Reed) would have become a spinster librarian, which is to say that without him, she would have received an advanced academic degree and ensured that the townspeople had equal access to information. Wouldn’t that have been AWFUL?
Countless little gestures have touched people’s lives, and at the end of it all, George realizes that it really is a wonderful life. Oh, and Clarence gets his wings. Know how we know? Because a bell on the Christmas tree rings, and little ZuZu chirps, “Teacher says, every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” Depending on the sort of person you are, you’ll either be reaching for the tissue or scrambling for a barf bag at this point. I’ve always been in the barf bag demographic.
Ostensibly, it’s a great story. Even I can appreciate the sentiment behind it, but I can’t stand spending this much time with George Bailey, and he somehow manages to show up every freaking Christmas. He’s crabby and short-tempered for most of the movie, making smart remarks in a voice so grating I’m sure it could cause seizures. If only they’d cast someone like Alec Baldwin in a snazzy remake, I’m sure I could get behind that!
Fans will undoubtedly enjoy the documentary “The Making of It’s a Wonderful Life” hosted by Tom Bosley, and Frank Capra Jr. hosts “A Personal Remembrance” on one of his father’s greatest films. The original Theatrical Trailer is also included. Perhaps the most exciting part about this two-disc set is the inclusion of the colorized version of the film. Colorization got a bad rap in its day (and for good reason), but for children (or Scrooges like me) it brings the film to life in a far more palatable way. I can’t say it made me a fan, but I’ll acknowledge a nice edition of a DVD when I see one.
