‘Family Man’ Parallel Universe For High Roller

Showing that there’s yet another way to do a variation on “A Christmas Carol,” director Brett Ratner gives us “The Family Man,” a comedy about a man who learns what’s important only when he loses it.

There’s just one problem with this latest take on the classic Dickens theme: Unlike Scrooge, it’s not clear just exactly what our protagonist needs to learn.

Nicolas Cage stars as Jack Campbell, the hard-working Wall Street deal-maker who forces his staff to work late on Christmas Eve because he’s “working on a big deal” and he wants them — not just him, all of them — to make a lot of money.

Not that Jack lacks much of anything, least of all ready cash. He lives in a Manhattan high-rise with a world-class view, he dresses in $2,000 suits, he drives a Ferrari and he can have beautiful women seemingly at will.

And we’re expected to believe that this guy is somehow unfulfilled?

Anyway, when he does a good deed one Christmas Eve, Jack becomes a candidate for … what, salvation? It’s hard to tell because the agent (or angel) who sets things in motion (Don Cheadle) won’t say. Or can’t say, beyond telling Jack that he’s being given a “glimpse.”

“A glimpse of what?” Jack screams.

Good question. The glimpse, apparently, is of the life Jack would have lived had he married his college sweetheart, Kate (Tea Leoni). And what a glimpse it is, filled with visions of mortgage payments, dirty diapers, bargain-basement furniture and bowling parties.

You know, the kind of life that most of us find all too familiar.

Worst of all, in Jack’s alternative world, he doesn’t work on Wall Street. He’s merely a tire salesman (sales manager, to be exact), an ordinary working stiff who, it turns out, stepped in for the owner (Kate’s father) when the old man suffered a heart attack.

Cage is never more convincing as when he picks up a bottle of scotch and, addressing his other self, says: “You must have needed this every day of your life.”

There are rewards. Jack and Kate’s daughter, Annie (Mackenzie Vega), is a charmer who ends up shepherding the clueless Jack around this other life to which he is a stranger (she thinks he’s an extraterrestrial). And, of course, he gets to sleep with Kate.

Only thing is, he gets to do that in between taking the kids to school and day care, changing those dirty diapers, selling mag wheels to New Jersey retirees and hanging out with friends who likely couldn’t spell Ferrari much less earn the money to buy one.

Cage fans will enjoy how he plays Jack, in control one minute and raging wildly the next. Cage also captures Jack’s predictable growth as a man, which takes place as he — surprise! — finds out that this new life isn’t so bad after all.

Leoni is good, too, and so are the others, especially Cheadle and comic actor Jeremy Piven. Vega, though, stands out the most.

In the end, “Family Man” is sweet enough to qualify as a fine family film. Only a grinch (apologies to Jim Carrey) would let the film’s various shortcomings spoil what is meant to be another Hollywood attempt to capture the Christmas spirit.

That being said, let me add that Jack — the Wall Street version — just never seems all that unhappy with his lot in life. And that undercuts the film’s overall message.

Anyway, if Jack does give up his car, can I have it?

This sidebar appeared with the story: MOVIE REVIEW “The Family Man” ***

Locations: Lincoln Heights, Newport Highway, River Park Square, Spokane Valley, Coeur d’Alene Showboat, River City (Post Falls) cinemas

Credits: Directed by Brett Ratner, starring Nicolas Cage, Tea Leoni, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Piven, Saul Rubinek, Josef Sommer, Mackenzie Vega

Running time: 2:05

Rating: PG-13