It's a Wonderful Life

"No man is a failure who has friends."

And no mom is a failure who has a movie-loving son. 

So, I have seen It's a Wonderful Life untold times; most of them on snowy Christmas eves while I frantically wrap gifts and giggle as Henry's Mr. Potter impressions get bigger and bigger, the more egg nog he consumes.  My oldest son has seen up to the lassoing-of-the-moon scene for 6 years in a row, at which point the sugar crashes, his little body gives out, and he retreats to visions of sugarplums. Neither of us have ever seen it on the big screen, so we decide to head over to the Michigan Theater today and watch it. It was magical and I could wax poetic for hours. Believe me, I could; it's one of my favorite movies. However, I thought it would be more fun to let my son do this one, given that it was his first complete viewing. Here's what he has to say:

1. Mom let me have candy, which was awesome. I picked Dots and I like them all, but Cherry is, by far, my favorite flavor. 

2. The theater was really pretty. Mom says it is called Art Deco, which I guess means art decoration for short. And it was really decorated, lots of lights and gold stuff. 

3. A man was playing the organ before the movie and that was really good. 

4. Mom, are you gonna number everything I say? Why? Oh, alright. I guess it does make it easier read. OK, go ahead.

5. The beginning of the movie is funny. Well, sorta funny. When that old sad man was hitting...what? Oh, right, when Mr. Gower was hitting George, that wasn't funny at all, but the rest was pretty funny. 

6. Esp. when the dance floor opens up and they all fell in the swimming pool. That was so funny and the best part of the whole movie! I wish our school had a floor like that.

7. Uncle Billy has a pet crow and that is really nice.

8. The middle part is pretty hard to understand, except Clarence does some magic and then George is happy again, even though he is going to jail. He's kinda happy he is going to jail, which is weird, but maybe he is just happy that he has his kids again. 

9. Our house is almost exactly like the Bailey's because it's kinda broken and messy and we have 4 kids too and everyone is always loud and doing weird stuff, but we like it. George likes it too at the end and all the people come over and everyone was shouting so I didn't hear what they said but I think it was good stuff. And Mom cried, which is silly because I told her, "he's not going to jail now because they have money again."

10. And Mom says that you can be rich in money like Mr. Potter or rich in friends like George. And the right answer is that you want to be rich in friends, but I think it might be good to be both. 

The next Roger Ebert, ladies and gentlemen.