The Family Man

\"The Family Man" is a pleasant holiday parable that viewers will liken to the new millennium's incarnation of Frank Capra's yuletide classic "It's a Wonderful Life."\n Nicolas Cage headlines the film as Jack Campbell, a slick and unabashedly single Wall Street player who seems to believe he has the world on a string. That is until he encounters Cash (Don Cheadle of "Traffic"), an otherworldly thug who looks down upon Jack's self-satisfied nature and ushers him into an alternate reality. One in which he's married to his long dismissed college sweetheart, Kate (Téa Leoni), has two precocious and infinitely adorable tykes, peddles tires\nat a retail tire outlet and maintains a humble home within the suburbs of New Jersey.\n A substantial amount of the film's humor derives from familial situations to which the stock-trading, Ferrari-driving Campbell is rather unaccustomed: He expects a receipt when dropping his kid off at day care. Between his work in "The Family Man" and "Face/Off," Cage is amassing an impressive audition reel for the ultimate fish out of water role as Krypton's first son in the oft-delayed "Superman" project.\n Much of the film's success can be attributed to its capable cast. Cage delivers a loose, charming performance reminiscent of works past. Leoni turns in her best work to date with a performance that's simultaneously intelligent, luminous and slyly sexy. The abundant chemistry shared between its stars separates "The Family Man" from other more pedestrian efforts. Also registering nicely but in a slightly underused fashion are Don Cheadle, perhaps the best character actor working today, and Jeremy Piven ("PCU") as Jack's surly, comedic bowling buddy.\n "The Family Man" occasionally stumbles with overly sentimental, saccharin-sweet moments that draw viewers out of the narrative and detract from the grounded yet fantastical elements of the film. Despite these minor quibbles, "The Family Man" is a top-drawer date flick and a new, if not slightly flawed, holiday classic.