It takes awhile though, Lula, remember the scenes leading up to that point, the shopping trip, and the temptation in the bowling alley, where he thinks he can do what he wants with no repercussions because it isn't real.
It's interesting, as you guys mentioned, that Jack is a pretty decent guy in both realities - he's never a Scrooge, for instance! So it's really about pitching two ideologies against each other: the man of business and the family man.
And, then the scene, where he forgot his "anniversary". Seeing Kate exited, while giving him her gift, and then he realise, that he has no gift for her, and seeing her disapointment after that. And, with Annies help, figuring out, what would make a fitting gift for that.
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"When you think about magic, it is imagination plus willpower focused in such a way that you can create a conscious effect in the material world..."
Ah yes, Arnie, Jeremy is great in this role. That scene near the beginning of the glimpse with Arnie is key, Nic has no clue that he is married to Kate till then really, he begins to understand a little bit of what Cash told him.
Well, all the transitional part is so good, and we haven't even talked about the romantic parts, lol!
Do you all think the film would work if it wasn't a festive Christmas film? If, say, it had been set mid-summer? How much do you think the Christmasiness is essential to the tone and message?
good point sprocket, and i think the film cleverly drops in little elements of each in the other, all the while goading us almost to polarize the two completely!
not scrooge.. but i do see dickensian favours..and teh scene where he has all his employees in theoffice on christmas eve at the beginning comes to mind..
The Christmas scene sets up Jack as a unsentimental business guy right away, Christmas Eve and still in the office. Then the whole family stuff happens right after, they immediately go into daily grind life, take the baby to day care and going to work. The ending brings us full circle, back to Christmas again, but with revelations made. it is scrooge-like in that way i guess.
Jack certainly seems to fall that side of the equation in the end..but i guess for the audience, it depends on our own values? is the moral of the story as simple as money doesn't buy you happiness? i certainly agree with that part, but don't necessarily agree family does either...or anything external.
happiness is our natural state when we stop wanting anything to be other than it is.
Well then Nic should have been perfectly happy in his first life, he said he had everything he wanted ,and therefore was not longing for anything else.