The 1994 romantic comedy was directed by Andrew Bergman and written by Jane Anderson. It’s the story of New York Officer Charlie Lang ( Nicolas Cage ) a married man who splits his lottery winnings with a waitress he literally just met. PS, this was extreemly loosely based on real events.
License – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Minor Spoilers Ahead:
PLOT:
Charlie is a kindhearted cop who actually enjoys his job. His wife, Muriel ( Rosie Perez ) a at first appearence a kindhearted lady who quickly transforms into a greedy gold digger as soon as they win the lottery. Things only get worse once Muriel finds out Charlie gave away $2million to a waitress, Yvonne ( Bridget Fonda ) who Charlie just met a day ago. Sure she’s struggling financially, but it’s only after the press claim the couple have a heart of gold that Muriel is fine with everything.
So who is Yvonne anway? Well, she’s a recently divorced waitress to Stanley Tucci who’s also 100% broke. Also her boss treats her like crap. So life’s been a little bit difficult to her lately. Everything changes after she “wins” the lottery. She buys the diner she was working at and she doesn’t have any worries anymore. Other than the ocassional press, she’s doing pretty good for herself.
So long story short. Things between Muriel ( who over the course of the film has joined my list of most annoying movie characters of all time ) and Charlie go south. In the meantime, Charlie and Yvonne both realize that they’re actually in love with each other. The two divorce, only one problem; Muriel wants Yvonne’s money back.
She takes it to court. After a long legal process, Muriel wins. So Yvonne and Charlie band together and move out to Buffalo. The diner is closed, Charlie quit his job as a cop, NYC is done with. Until they go back in the diner one last time and find letters filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Happy end after all? The End.
CONCLUSSION:
Overall, It Could Happen to you was an enjoyable film. The chemistry between Fonda and Cage and the lack of chemistry between Cage and Perez really hold the movie together. Cage also for as far as I can tell the only time in his career didn’t give his usual over-exagerrated stlye. Making everything genuinally just work out. I’d give this film a 7/10.
-The Screenwriter
Photo is from Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page