Lights Out
Copyright (c) 1994, Bruce Diamond
All rights reserved


        Ŀ
           IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU:  Andrew Bergman, director.      
           Jane Angerson, screenplay.  Starring Nicolas Cage,      
           Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez, Wendell Pierce, Isaac       
           Hayes, Seymour Cassel, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins   
           and Red Buttons.  TriStar.  Rated PG.                   
        

          IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU is a deliriously giddy movie, a work
     that's determined to make you feel better despite yourself.  Such
     an aggressively feel-good movie hasn't appeared on screen since,
     well, since last year's SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE.  Though neither
     romantic comedy share cast, crew, or creative personnel, they
     still resonate on the same giddy level, layering the proceedings
     in a fantasy-like quality.  The situations (a perfect love
     changing your life forever; top prize in a lottery changing your
     live forever) are storybook simple writ large -- the choice of
     music, the "staging," even the staggering coincidences that turn
     up in both films underscore the similarity in style.  The
     directors do have their distinctive touches, though:  Nora Ephron
     (SLEEPLESS) keeps a light, breezy touch on her material.
     SLEEPLESS is airy and expansive, as open as Tom Hanks' heart and
     Meg Ryan's smile.  Andrew Bergman (IT COULD HAPPEN) exhibits a
     tarter edge to his humor, nervous and twitchy (Rosie Perez), and
     by turns glum and morose (Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda).  But the
     romantic icing with which Bergman frosts his story makes this
     film brighter and more colorful than its nigh-claustrophobic
     Queens settings would normally allow.  I'd refer to IT COULD
     HAPPEN TO YOU as the SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE of 1994, but it's a
     little more intelligent and won't earn as much box office as
     Ephron's frothy mix.  Plus some other critic already beat me to
     it.

          The film is a wonderful romantic comedy originally titled
     COP GIVES WAITRESS $2 MILLION TIP, which says it all.  Cage plays
     the big-hearted cop with an old-fashioned "goodness" that never
     lapses into unbelievably wide-eyed innocence or smarmy sentiment.
     He does what he does (honors his promises; saves a merchant from
     a holdup) because it's what he does.  He needs to be good,
     because it's an essential part of his nature, like breathing.
     Approval, awards, or applause never enter his mind, though they
     do visit him throughout the story.  That's why he's a cop.
     Cage's character is a refreshing change from the current crop of
     "What's in it for me?" protagonists -- and actors, for that
     matter.  It's a role that would fit Tom Hanks or Richard Dreyfuss
     just as well as it fits Cage.

          Fonda's waitress, while just as cheery as Cage in the latter
     half of the film, starts out a bit cranky and cantankerous.  Who
     can blame her -- she's just declared bankruptcy, having been
     stuck with a $12,000 credit card bill by her estranged husband.
     Her protestations that she can't afford a divorce don't wash in
     this day of $40 quicky specials.  Despite her troubles, though,
     she still manages to force a smile for smart-alecky customers
     (Cage and his cop partner) and avoids blowing up at her Scrooge-
     like boss.

          Cage and Fonda are almost too good to be true, so of course
     they're going to fall in love.

          When the "lottery cop and waitress" begin sharing their good
     fortune with others -- buying subway tokesn for strangers,
     renting a baseball stadium for the neighborhood kids -- the film
     almost teeters into pur sappiness.  Disasters visited upon the
     pair (in the form of Rosie Perez as a shrewish wife and Stanley
     Tucci as Fonda's unemployed actor husband) almost seem forced,
     contrived to counterbalance the sweetness.  The third act
     reality-warping coincidence that throws Cage and Fonda together
     at the Plaza nearly topples the realism created by screenwriter
     Jane Anderson and director Bergman.  Cage and Fonda are solid
     enough, however, to carry us through such concerns and even bring
     us to cheer for them.

          A seemingly-metaphysical Isaac Hayes ("Angel") serves as
     narrator, but he's thankfully brought to ground by the time we
     reach the Plaza.  He serves as an understated observer to what is
     loosely based on a true story.  "The story you're about to see is
     more or less true," he tells us in the beginning, and you find
     yourself wishing that more films carried the same disclaimer.  IT
     COULD HAPPEN TO YOU doesn't need it, though, because it's strong
     enough, and entertaining enough, to stand on its own merits.

     RATING:  $$$
