The Greatest Trick

Right, I have to write this now as it’s a week late as it is and I’ll never get around to it otherwise. The long and short of this movie is that I don’t believe your experience of Christmas is complete unless you’ve seen it at least once.

I’m sure most people have done so already, but for those who haven’t, these are the basics: George Bailey (James Stewart), noble brother, son and father who has lived his whole life in a small town helping people out despite himself, goes through a long, dark night of the soul and gets a chance to see what things would be like if he had never been born. What we see in most of the film is all back story for the benefit of the angel being sent to help him out, Clarence; by the time he actually gets to earth to help George out, we are thoroughly convinced of the need for George to be saved - he is an absolutely good man, who acts selflessly throughout his life, and though he gets to a very dark place at a certain point, we know that redemption is possible.

While looking for pictures for this review, I stumbled across this website, and an article written by Jimmy Stewart himself. I didn’t know of the actor’s personal faith, but it simply makes the film resound even more for me. The film begins with the townsfolk uniting (separately) in prayer for George Bailey because his wife has spread the word that he’s in trouble, without really knowing what the trouble is. When we watched it last week, this had both Heidi and I in tears; the thing is, the first time you see it you can’t possibly appreciate the importance of these simple, unwordy prayers. But watch it twice, three times, and you can’t begin the movie without blubbing. And the story on the site linked to above about the scene where George prays had me in tears again!

Many critics have dismissed the movie as overly sentimental (and judging by the tone of this review, you might think the same thing); frankly, if you can’t be sentimental at Christmas, when can you be? But as well as this, the film goes to a very dark place before lightening up. Watch George and Mary’s wooing of each other, and their wedding day and night, and the things they do to help those around them, and enjoy the romance of it. Then see how George behaves when he comes home on Christmas Eve and you know you’re not in saccharine territory here. The man is suicidal, for goodness’ sake. In the same way as Scrooge has to witness his own death before being redeemed, so George has to be shown the worst implications of him not existing before coming up out of his darkness.

And what does the film say? That you are important. That the things you do in life have ripple effects for more than just those close to you, so make the right choices. That people are more important than money. That God answers prayer. Believe it.