It Could Happen to You [VHS]
by Andrew Bergman
![It Could Happen to You [VHS]](/images/It-Could-Happen-to-You-VHS-6303334598-L.jpg)
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Bridget Fonda, Isaac Hayes, Nicolas Cage, Rosie Perez, Wendell PierceDirector: Andrew Bergman
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
Running Time: 101 minutes
Release Date: 1995-07-25
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Studio: Sony Pictures
VHS Movie Reviews of It Could Happen to You [VHS]
Movie Review: White female as the only acceptable feminity
Summary: 1 Stars
This is an extremely unfortunate film. People need to be extremely careful what messages they are willing to accept as good messages. This story really falls apart when you analyze Bridget Fonda's character and recognize that she has very few qualities worth identifying. Her character is presented as the ultimate victim. She is supposed to be down on her luck, but that became obnoxious when you recognize that she is does not have a difficult life. The worst thing that has happened to her through the entire film is that her career as an actress flopped and she is mildly in debt because of a poor first marriage. Her seriousness about her debt is supposed to somehow make her a victim that needs to be saved by the right man. Her life isn't difficult. All she has to do is wait tables and she cannot manage that without being depressed; she has no responsibilities beside going to work and she cannot even find a job that she likes. Her character also has the annoying habit of trying to make her own ignorance cute. She doesn't understand what killed her beloved dog and never finds out. Poor Bridget...her dog died when she was a little girl.
The more serious implication of this film is that it reaffirms racial stereotypes. The film's underlying message is that a white man should never be with a minority woman and is justified in committing adultery if his current wife is non white. Fonda's character is childish, but somehow portrayed as the right mate for Cage. It is really sickening when you analyze Fonda's character and notice that beneath her constant complaining she is not ultimately sweet but greedy and deliberately engaging in an affair with another woman's husband. She has an apartment and a job--she does not need the lottery ticket and should not have taken it. Credit card debit is not an excuse to take money from a married man and is so selfish it is sickening. She does not feel bad about this at all and does not refuse the money because the other woman is colored. She feels like she is entitled to the belongings of a white male.
This movie contains the worst stereotype against a Latino female that I have ever viewed. Muriel is mean, greedy, childish (all the women in this film are extremely childish), and reduced to her body--she gets breast implants even though she is already physically beautiful. Within the first few minutes of the film Muriel explains that she is the kind of person that "needs money." She is domineering and yells at her husband. She wears beautiful outfits not because she has a love of beauty but because she is vain. When given money she puts a picture of herself on the wall further degrading attractive minority females. She supposedly lived with her husband for long periods of time but cannot understand him. She is stupid and disloyal. She dreams of winning the lottery not because of her economic situation (a minority female stuck in poverty) but because she is so greedy. She is so childish that she shrieks like a banshee when she wins the jackpot.
This movie does not resemble what it is like to be a minority female in the United States and ultimately portrays the life of a simple white girl as being more tragic. Then follows suit this case for the justification of a single white female stealing back the white male that accidentally married the wrong woman (a minority). By degrading the relationship of the married couple all interracial marriages are degraded.
As far as intercity life is concerned, this movie is pathetic. As a decent guy Cage has no material wants; this is portrayed by his willingness to raise children in the inner city without seeing a problem with it. Let's consider just why it might be a problem to raise children in the inner city and why love and humility will not make up for poor economic conditions. It is nothing more than a white woman's fantasy and justification for her own jealousy and belief in her ultimate superiority over other women. We are supposed to believe that females are so stupid that they cannot understand what poverty is really like and think that it can be solved by kissing aids patients and giving soup to the homeless. We get the typical black cop, who is ultimately useless but a dutiful side kick to the white man who is the actual hero. This role is reproduced in so many films that it is downright the hallmark of a bad film. Another hallmark is the dishonest Arab taxi driver who makes his appearance and the Arab that robs the mini mart. Asians are portrayed as racist work alcoholics(another common stereotype). It is amazing how every negative human quality appears in the character of a minority while the white Cage pleads for people to be reasonable.
As far as the divorce between Muriel and Cage is concerned, Muriel is somehow twisted into being wrong. Her husband insults her and parades the affair that he is having with another woman in front of her and the news, and somehow she is not entitled to the winning ticket and only gets it because of a ruthless lawyer. Nothing is mentioned about how no decent man would take his lottery earning and split it with some bimbo he met the day before (and Fonda is a bimbo) rather than with his wife. I am ashamed of this film and it isn't romantic.
Summary of It Could Happen to You [VHS]
Inspired by an actual incident, this unassuming, wonderfully good-natured romantic comedy tells the story of a New York City street cop named Charlie (Nicolas Cage) who makes a promise to a coffee-shop waitress named Yvonne (Bridget Fonda) that will change both their lives. One day after coffee, Charlie is embarrassed to discover he doesn't have money for a tip, so he tells Yvonne that he'll share half of his winnings if the lottery ticket he's holding comes up a winner. Sure enough, he wins the jackpot--a whopping $4 million payoff--and Charlie's wife, Muriel (Rosie Perez), goes ballistic when he tells her about his deal with Yvonne. From this point, It Could Happen to You follows Charlie's dilemma as he is forced to decide the proper course of action, and director Andrew Bergman smoothly incorporates a gentle love story into this amusing crisis of conscience. Fonda and Cage have an easygoing chemistry that adds a pleasant touch to the movie's fairy-tale plot, and the story's kindhearted sentiment is never so thick that it becomes sticky-sweet or artificial. As feel-good comedies go, this one's a class act. --Jeff ShannonComedy VHS Video
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