just in time for christmas comes a story worthy of both ebenezer and jimmy stewart , with wild at heart's nicholas cage cast in the role of the out of touch rich guy . jack campbell ( cage ) is not a bad man . he's not even a callous man . he's just a regular guy who happens to believe that millions of dollars , a beautiful blonde lover , and a ferrari in the garage are ample compensation for whatever he may be missing in the way of mediocre suburban living . but when this good-natured wall street mega-titan puts his life on the line to save a convenience store from a firefight , he makes a big mistake . because that kid with the pistol ( don cheadle ) is no ordinary hoodlum -- he's some kind of wacky angel or ghost-of-christmas-in-a-parallel-universe or something . and little does jack know , as he lay himself down to sleep on christmas eve , that he'll wake the next morning to the life he could've had if only he'd married his college girlfriend ( téa leoni , deep impact ) instead of following his ambition to become one of the world's richest , most powerful men . the movie tries earnestly to make a case for the intrinsic value of middle class life , but fails miserably to pull through , largely because it makes power brokering look so easy and fun . i won't bog you down in all the little details of jack's boring suburban life , but suffice it to say he makes the honest , simple life seem pretty unappealing . cage's performance is strong enough , at times even believable , but his hairpiece needs some serious work . leoni is a subtle charmer as the spunky mother of two , and cheadle's work in the beginning of the film carries a potency not seen since his appearance in boogie nights . but , oddly enough , it is the child actor mackenzie vega who adds the most dimension to the picture as annie , the campbells' precocious daughter . the only really funny or heartwarming moments in the film revolve around annie's frank ( but misguided ) understanding that cage is not her real father but an alien come to observe our planet . never has the phrase " welcome to earth " drawn such touching laughter from an audience . ( except maybe in et . did they say that in et ? ) the family man is , in the end , a carefree tale of love and bad new jersey accents . for every man who's ever wondered what life he could have had if he'd never married the mother of his children , this film has the answer . and , just as you might have suspected , you may have been better off alone . while the film fails in many ways to reach a memorable conclusion , it just might carry enough soft-hearted cheer to make a tired old married couple smile on christmas eve . 
