Normally Mickey Rooney is a cocky, mugging, scene-chewing bulldozer. But he is amazing this time out, so restrained and touching as Homer that it's hard to believe it's the same person. Just talking about his scene delivering his first "we regret to inform you" telegram gets me choked up.
Both film and book are pleasant "Greatest Generation" relics, but too idealized and loaded with flawless, angelic characters to be taken seriously. Almost no one rings true. You'll appreciate how great ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE is--a film that showed the cynicism beneath the small town veneer, yet still celebrated the human spirit. Is no one in Ithica petty or selfish or impatient? Is EVERYONE noble?
Soon the war would end, and movies would again take a more honest, warts-and-all look at America.
Both film and book are pleasant "Greatest Generation" relics, but too idealized and loaded with flawless, angelic characters to be taken seriously. Almost no one rings true. You'll appreciate how great ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE is--a film that showed the cynicism beneath the small town veneer, yet still celebrated the human spirit. Is no one in Ithica petty or selfish or impatient? Is EVERYONE noble?
Soon the war would end, and movies would again take a more honest, warts-and-all look at America.