The art of gentle comedy with innocent, unassuming characters has all but disappeared in this day and age of in-your-face farce and hardened, cynical protagonists. So, it's nice to have Andrew Bergman's latest effort, "It Could Happen to You," which is something of an antidote for just about everything else that's out there.
In fact, it's just nice to have Andrew Bergman making movies . . . though it's apparent he was born too late. The writer ("The In-Laws," "Soapdish") and writer-director ("Honeymoon in Vegas," "The Freshman"), this time working from a script by Jane Anderson ("The Positively True Adventures of the Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom"), offers characters and relationships and screwball situations that seem almost out of place in the midst of such high-tech multiplex fare as "True Lies," "The Client," "North," "The Shadow," etc.
In "It Could Happen to You," Nicolas Cage stars as the impossibly sweet-natured Charlie Lang, a New York beat cop who just wants to do the right thing. He'd like to have children, but his shrewish wife Muriel (Rosie Perez), a brassy hairdresser, is too concerned with material things to be bothered. "I'm CNN and she's the Home Shopping Network," he says at one point. Meanwhile, Muriel complains that Charlie isn't ambitious enough to get off his street beat, saying, "If he was on the take at least I'd say, `OK, he has initiative!' "
So, when Charlie's not helping people in the line of duty, he plays ball with the neighborhood kids outside his Queens tenement.
The plot kicks into gear when Muriel has a dream, which she interprets as the number of a winning lottery ticket. Charlie reluctantly purchases a ticket, and gets the number wrong.
Later in the day, he goes to a diner where waitress Yvonne (Brid-get Fonda) is having the worst day of her life. As Charlie is about to leave, he pays for his bill but is chagrined to see that he doesn't have enough money for a tip. So, he offers Yvonne half the winnings of his lottery ticket. She figures she'll never see him again.
Well, you guessed it — Charlie wins $4 million in the lottery. And much to his wife's chagrin, he vows to keep his promise to Yvonne.
The rest of the film has Muriel spending their $2 million as fast as she can while Charlie and Yvonne go out and do good deeds — buying subway tokens for homebound commuters, arranging a visit to Yankee Stadium for the neighborhood kids, etc.
There aren't a lot of surprises here. From the beginning, the audience can predict right where the film is going, and that's right where it goes. Charlie and Yvonne are attracted to each other but keep it platonic, and as Muriel cheats on Charlie and eventually schemes to divorce him and keep all the money for herself, the obvious sentiment — money can't buy happiness — is brought home.
But getting there provides the fun, with a steady stream of laughs and terrific chemistry between Cage and Fonda, bolstering both the comedy and the ultimate romance.
Many of the traditional screwball comedy trappings are here — coincidences, a courtroom scene, a posh hotel where Charlie and Yvonne run into each other. And both are very good, while Perez provides a rousing counterpoint. And there are nice cameos by Seymour Cassel, Red Buttons and Isaac Hayes. Wendell Pierce also lends solid support as Charlie's partner.
The ending borrows from "Miracle on 34th Street" and skates nicely on its charm and good-natured sensibilities.
"It Could Happen to You" (which is not nearly as good as the original title — "Cop Tips Waitress $2 million") is rated PG for some violence, a couple of profanities and couple of vulgar gags.