It Could Happen to You (1994)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Andrew Bergman

Writer (WGA):

Jane Anderson (written by)

Release Date:

29 July 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A cop. A waitress. A lottery ticket.

Plot:

A police officer promises to share his lottery ticket with a waitress in lieu of a tip.

Plot Keywords:

Lottery | Waitress | Money | Ticket | Police Officer

US TV Schedule:

Mon. July 13

12:45 PM

AMC

Cast

Nicolas Cage	...	Charlie Lang
Bridget Fonda	...	Yvonne Biasi
Rosie Perez	...	Muriel Lang
Wendell Pierce	...	Bo Williams
Isaac Hayes	...	Angel Dupree
Víctor Rojas	...	Jesu
Seymour Cassel	...	Jack Gross
Stanley Tucci	...	Eddie Biasi
J.E. Freeman	...	Sal Bontempo
Red Buttons	...	Walter Zakuto
Richard Jenkins	...	C. Vernon Hale
Robert Dorfman	...	Walter
Charles Busch	...	Timothy
Beatrice Winde	...	Judge
Ginny Yang	...	Mrs. Sun

Also Known As:

Cop Gives Waitress $2 Million Tip! (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Germany:6 | Netherlands:6 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Chile:TE | Finland:K-8 | Peru:PT | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG (certificate #32943) | Norway:7 | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Bethsheba Terrace, Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

TriStar Pictures

Trivia:

Released in the UK in the same week that the National Lottery was launched.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The subhead of the "Lottery Cop Hits Wife" front page that is released during the divorce trial reads "Muriel Tell's All," which obviously contains an erroneous apostrophe.

Quotes:

Charlie Lang: I told yhou I'd share my ticket. I never planned on sharing my heart. Maybe I could get lucky twice today.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mad About You: The City (#3.10)" (1994)

Soundtrack:

Always

Overly sentimental and 'nice' but it works if that is what you are expecting from it

Charlie Lang is an honest hard working cop who has modest ambitions and enjoys his life in his local neighbourhood in Queens. When he buys coffee at a local diner he feels bad because he hasn't got enough for a tip – and instead offers her half of his winnings if his lottery ticket hits. When it hits, he keeps his word and gives Yvonne half of his money, $2 million dollars. She is blown away even though Charlie's wife, Muriel, explodes when she finds out. Muriel's plan for the money is to keep every cent and use it to make more money, however both Charlie and Yvonne are kinder people who want to use the money to do good.

I remember this film as it came out at roughly the same time as the UK set up it's own national lottery programme and the publicity from both of these things helped the other in some way. However, aside from this connection, the film is pretty unmemorable while still managing to be quite 'nice' for the most part. The plot sees nice people doing nice things and being nice with their money and then falling slowly in love like good nice people do. However the bad person who is greedy doesn't like it and she becomes increasingly bad and threatens to spoil the niceness of the nice people – and thank god for the 'bad' person or this would have been almost unbearably nice! The film tries to give a nice warm feel but it is too clean to do that and it is only the greedy side of the film that prevents it becoming way too nice and almost falling into a coma for lack of pulse. Muriel gives the film a bit more bit, although it would have been much better if the nice characters and the greedy characters had been a little more balanced and less extreme, but I suppose that was not the point of this film.

No the aim was to be a 'nice' film with so much syrup that it would kill a million ants and in that regard it works. It is fun and it is overly sweet but if you are in the mood for something insubstantial but cheerful then this is OK if instantly forgettable. Cage is bland but he comes across as a nice guy without being so nice that it is unbelievable. Fonda is about as sweet as white bread comes and is a 'nice' character. The downside for some audiences is that both of these characters will be hated by some viewers on the basis that they are both sickeningly sweet! Perez is annoying but that is the point of her character; she does good work and lets herself look bad to the benefit of the film as she manages to make it more interesting. Hayes is a nice addition as the narrator and the cast also features some well-known faces including Red Buttons, Stanley Tucci, Cassel, Jenkins and Freeman.

Overall this is a sickly sweet film that is horribly sentimental but is OK if that's what you are coming to it for. It is hard not to feel 'nice' at some point of the film and only the most cynical of viewers wouldn't hope that this was real life and there were really people like this. The presence of the exaggerated Perez really helps – even if you don't like her you will still have to admit that her greedy character does well to take some of the syrup out of the film and make it a little more enjoyable.