One Paragraph Movie Review: It’s A Wonderful Life

Two hundred and sixty-sixth film: It’s A Wonderful Life, the 1946 Christmassy movie that I really should have seen before now. Having been around so long, I’ve heard bits and pieces about this movie, and formed some vague opinions about it. Still, it was weirder, more mystical, more heavily sentimental, darker, and funnier than I was expecting — the latter in part due I’m sure to uncredited writing contributions from Dorothy Parker, my all-time favourite wordy bitch. I just wasn’t expecting the whole thing to start with two nebulae chatting in space and include some contemporarily-relevant observations about housing affordability. With the suicidal-man-being-shown-what-life-would-have-been-like-without-him storyline, it has smudges of influence from A Christmas Carol and Back To The Future, and stops just short of saccharine. Most of the time. For something that’s not my cup of tea, I took some pretty loud sips. Three and a half faulty staircase newels out of five.