I saw this recently. Not really my cup of tea for a film, but the fact it's based on a true story makes it interesting. It's not exactly true to the real storyline, but it shows how different people can be when quite a hefty amount of money comes their way. Quite sad really.
There is a miracle at the center of "It Could Happen to You," the blandly named romantic comedy that had the punchier working title "Cop Gives Waitress $2 Million Tip." The original title plays itself out early in the film when the cop, Nicolas Cage, runs out of cash to tip the coffee-shop waitress, Bridget Fonda. He offers to share a lottery ticket instead, and the next day wins $4 million. But that quirk of fate is nothing beside another odds-defying event: two good-hearted people find each other in New York City. Now that's a miracle, at least in the scheme of this movie, a sometimes awkward mix of savviness and schmaltz.
The other miracle is that the two stars of "It Could Happen to You" keep it sailing over a script that is often as predictable and flat as the movie's new title. In one of the brighter touches, Charlie (Mr. Cage) is introduced carrying a blind man across the street and delivering a baby on a bus, presumably all in a day's work. He is so impossibly selfless that the story begins with a fairy-tale prologue, in which a man named Angel says: "Once upon a time in New York there was a cop named Charlie. He was a very decent guy."
It can't have been easy for the actors to liven up so many syrupy scenes, though. The film is loaded with episodes that seem too flabby to have come from Andrew Bergman, the writer and director of extremely funny, edgy comedies like "Honeymoon in Vegas" and "The Freshman." The script is by Jane Anderson, who wrote the television satire "The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom." Either one of them might have been expected to come up with sharper comedy and fresher romance.
