Rewatched this fine little supernatural-like comedy yesterday; a remake of the earlier Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) that I actually think improves on it.
The story, of a football player taken to the afterlife before his time and so coming back in the body of a rich man, is the kind of thing that has been made a bunch of times in lots of hackneyed ways, but this one pulls it off better than most others through the quality and care you can feel in every department: the acting is real acting, detailed and likeable the whole way through, with Jack Warden shining the brightest, and Julie Christie's performance in the final scene of the film is probably her best, making what could be light and throwaway into something striking and memorable, with genuine emotional power, very much reminiscent of Chaplin's City Lights.
It really is the kind of film they don't - and can't - make anymore.
The story, of a football player taken to the afterlife before his time and so coming back in the body of a rich man, is the kind of thing that has been made a bunch of times in lots of hackneyed ways, but this one pulls it off better than most others through the quality and care you can feel in every department: the acting is real acting, detailed and likeable the whole way through, with Jack Warden shining the brightest, and Julie Christie's performance in the final scene of the film is probably her best, making what could be light and throwaway into something striking and memorable, with genuine emotional power, very much reminiscent of Chaplin's City Lights.
It really is the kind of film they don't - and can't - make anymore.