Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Search cinema listings

Browse cinemas A-Z

Search 20,000 reviews

 

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Director: Frank Capra

5

Time Out rating

Average user rating
3 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

The only Yuletide favourite to pivot around an attempted suicide, Capra’s post-war fable is a fascinating melange of social and personal impulses and the questionable charms of home. James Stewart is impeccable as George Bailey, the Bedford Falls boy-next-door whose dreams are continually deferred by the demands of family and national upset: rather than exploring and building new worlds, he runs a building society, marries and raises children. Mapping his frustrations and joys onto the contours of recent US history, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ puts individual and group interests in tension. Denied the opportunities for individualist enterprise that are the stock in trade of American cinematic heroism, George is pulled towards communal effort and self-effacement. Yet the film’s bravura fantasy sequence, imagining the hellishly licentious Bedford Falls that would exist without George, makes the grandest possible case for the importance and uniqueness of individual agency – ‘Battleship Potemkin’ this ain’t. Funny, compelling and moving.

Author: Ben Walters 2007-12-10 15:56:09

Time Out London Issue 1947: December 12-18 2007


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • chantho said...
    Posted on Dec 10 2009 11:19 "The only Yuletide favourite to pivot around an attempted suicide...." There's also The Apartment, a classic no less steeped in Yuletide yearning...
    Report as inappropriate
  • wilbury guy said...
    Posted on Dec 12 2008 20:01 this is not only the best festive movie ever, it is probably the best movie ever. i have watch it on dvd every year since my father introduced it to me when i was 10 (now 37) and finally this year i have found it on a big screen, cant wait.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Headwig said...
    Posted on Dec 21 2007 15:33 this in my humble opion is one of the finest films ever made if you only have a small DVD collection this film has got to be in it
    Report as inappropriate

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Top Stories

Time Out's 50 greatest monster movies

Time Out's 50 greatest monster movies

As Joe Johnston’s long-awaited reinvention of Universal’s howl-at-the-moon classic ‘The Wolfman’ hits cinemas, Time Out lists our 50 favourite cinematic stalkers, growlers, slashers and biters.

Mark Kermode: A life in film

Mark Kermode: A life in film

Dave Calhoun chats to Britain's most outspoken film critic and pundit ahead of the release of his memoirs

Has Ricky Gervais gone all serious?

Has Ricky Gervais gone all serious?

The trailer to 'Cemetery Junction' suggests that its writer-director is suppressing his funny bone.

The genius of Roman Polanski

The genius of Roman Polanski

Ahead of his new film, 'The Ghost', we must forget the media circus and remember the artist pleads Wally Hammond

Oscars 2010: The nominees

Oscars 2010: The nominees

Tom Huddleston offers his acute analysis on the list of nominees for the 2010 Academy Awards

Rotterdam 2010: Geoff Andrew's report

Rotterdam 2010: Geoff Andrew's report

Geoff Andrew finds rich leftfield pickings at the 2010 Rotterdam Film Festival

Can Tom Ford cut it as a director?

Can Tom Ford cut it as a director?

After ten years as creative head of Gucci, Tom Ford has directed his first movie. Nina Caplan meets him

Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade

Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade

So here it is… Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this.

2009: The year in film

2009: The year in film

We look back at the best movies of 2009 and pick out some of our favourite lists, features and interviews.