It Could Happen to You (1994)

Today on Movie Russian Roulette, we take a look at It Could Happen to You, a romantic comedy starring, yes, Nicolas Cage. What could possibly go wrong?

ALLLLVA. ALLLLVA!

Overview: Nic Cage is an honest, hardworking cop who lives in Queens, plays stickball with various adorable ethnic neighborhood youths, has a wisecracking black partner, and is married to a shrill howler monkey of a wife whom I believe would inspire domestic violence from even the most saintly of men. Not so with Officer Cage, however, who grins and bears the shrewery.

Meanwhile, Bridget Fonda plays a struggling waitress who has almost legendary bad luck. On the same day that she goes bankrupt, Officer Cage buys a lotto ticket and offers to split the winnings, if any, with her when he comes up short for lunch. What wacky hijinks will ensue?

Sadly, nothing this wacky.

Cage, of course, wins $4 million. Saint Cage wants to honor the deal and give $2 million to the waitress, but the screeching harpy wants to latch her talons into the money and never let go. Cage does the right thing, and complications ensue. For the most part, entirely predictable complications, like Cage and the only sympathetic female character in the movie entering a relationship and dramatic music swelling in a sudden courtroom drama that serves as a barrier to the relationship as Cage and shebeast from hell get divorced and she attempts to take all the money.

Notable moments/elements: Ye gods, do I have a list for this one. First of all, Cage and the waitress run into each other not once, but twice thanks to contrived coincidences. The first time, Cage's shrieking wildebeast he's married to fails to notice he's not on the ship for the brief cruise they're going on. Because reasons, the waitress was also going on the ship. CLEARLY THE ONLY THING TO DO IS FOR THESE TWO MARRIED PEOPLE TO GO ON A ROMANTIC DATE TOGETHER. The second time, both have, for various reasons, been kicked out by their spouses. They both stay at the same fancy New York hotel, checking in at the same time, having rooms on the same floor, in adjacent rooms that have a connecting door.

Also, seemingly everyone in the entire city of New York gives a shit about this random cop and waitress who become rich. Any time one of them so much as sneezes, New Cage York sprints to the newsstands and reads all about Officer Cage and waitress.

There's also a wise, older black gentleman who acts as a level-headed, above-it-all narrator for a good part of the movie. For a brief, beautiful moment, I was 100% certain that somehow, through some deal with the Romantic Comedy Devil, Morgan Freeman was narrating this movie. Sadly, this was not the case.

"Sorry, I have 'standards'."

Also, this delightful exchange happens.
Officer Cage: "Our favorite Korean is getting robbed."
Cage's Partner: "Really?"
"First he tells me his wife has the flu."
"That bitch would work if she was dead."
"Then he gives me the coffee for free."
"Shit, he really is gettin' robbed!"

My thoughts: This movie actually has some very clever moments to it. While on the whole, it's very predictable, there are subtle touches in the background and how characters are characterized (although for the most part, characters remain static) that really make me want to like the movie. However, just when I had a nice, fuzzy feeling, the movie would pull something like the aforementioned hotel coincidence and ruin it all.

In example, when we first meet the waitress, on several occasions she's shown acting flustered and forgetting where her glasses are when she goes to read something. This shows us that she's overworked and perhaps a little distracted. This happens a few times over a long enough stretch that pretty much everyone should register it, but the movie isn't ramming it down your throat like an overzealous Mormon. About ten minutes of screentime later, Cage gets her a gift of those chains you see librarians wearing that keep their glasses on their heads. This also establishes Cage's empathy and perception, and on the whole is a smart moment that's built up in an unobtrusive way that makes sense for both characters.

Little moments like that are scattered throughout the movie, like bacon bits on top of stale Wonder Bread. Another subtle one was the inclusion of a gay couple in the movie briefly; they're not played for laughs, demonized, canonized... they're just... there, without judgement, just as characters who happen to be gay. That's the sort of thing a lot of movies even now, with American society grinding towards greater acceptance, struggle to/fail to pull off.

Let me just climb down from here real quick...

However, don't get me wrong; this movie is not really that good. On the whole, it's a fairly vapid, predictable, transparent, and oddly in favor of adultery sort of movie. However, it contains nice little moments like those above, including a downright clever use of the narrator character, albeit in a predictable way (oddly I find I don't want to spoil this by explaining it, but it makes sense in context) that add a little charm and spontaneity to even the most by-the-numbers Hollywood turd.

Much like Cage himself.

On the whole, I have to give this a Nic Cage pre-emptively settles a bar tab out of ten. As expected with Nic Cage, even when I lose at Movie Russian Roulette, I get to win a little too.

"You're welcome."