Yvonne Biasi (Bridget Fonda) is an aspiring actress gone bankrupt. Charlie (Nicolas Cage) is a NY city beat cop and his wife Muriel Lang (Rosie Perez) is desperate to get out of their one bedroom apartment in Queens. He's eating lunch at a diner with his partner Bo Williams (Wendell Pierce). With no money for the tip, he promises to split his lottery ticket with her and come back with a tip if it doesn't win. The jackpot is $64 million. Muriel is angry to split the jackpot with 15 other tickets but then Charlie tells her about Yvonne. Charlie pities Yvonne and gives her a choice between double the tip or half of the ticket. However, the money isn't what brings happily ever after.It's a very sweet premise with nothing too risky. It depends a lot on the actors to make this straight romance work. Bridget is classic and Nick is restrained. They are sweeter than molasses. Rosie is as loud as heck and an annoying villain. It's a simple romantic fable that hits most of the right notes. This could have been made by Frank Capra himself.

It Could Happen to You (1994): Dir: Andrew Bergman / Cast: Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez, Seymour Cassel, Isaac Hayes: Enjoyable romantic comedy about sudden change within a routine lifestyle. It stars Nicolas Cage as a cop who is devoted to serving others. Bridget Fonda plays a waitress struggling to make a living. The plot regards a lottery ticket Cage promises to split with Fonda if he wins. His wife will take him to court for his generosity. Interesting concept subdued by formula and an ill handling of adultery. Directed by Andrew Bergman with the same theme of chance conduct in his The Freshman and Honeymoon in Vegas. Cage and Fonda are likable actors who survive material where they become consumed in romantic clichés where it seems as if their relationship makes it okay for adultery. With the negative survival rate of marriages today it might be refreshing to see one actually portrayed as salvageable within motion pictures. On the flip side Rosie Perez as Cage's materialistic wife is a steal in her vindictive methods that eventually defeat her. Seymour Cassel has a standout role as someone who eventually stoops lower by overtaking the selfish. Isaac Hayes plays a poor man who becomes the ticket to happiness when generosity is demonstrated. It isn't a big role but it serves its purpose well. Theme regards giving, which the lottery cannot buy. Score: 7 / 10

On the face of it, "It could happen to you" could be regarded by cynics as a load of romantic slush, but it's far from that, and made even better because "It could happen to you" is based on a true story, and I, with my wife, enjoyed every minute of it.To start with every time she and I think of Nicholas Cage this is the film that comes to mind, in fact in our view Nicholas Cage has done nothing to equal this wonderfully beautiful and just plain nice film, since.Nicholas Cage could have been born a New York cop, because in this film he is the image of how I see the perfect cop, and this perfect cop goes through hell following a lottery win he promises to share with a waitress played by the wonderful Bridget Fonda even before he buys the ticket. Bridget Fonda excels as the hard working, hard done by Waitress whom Nicholas Cage meets up with in the cafe she works.This film is a miniature "Its a wonderful life" because it gives people hope, and if tears aren't in your eyes at the end, then you are just not human.

In the shadow of selfish greed: unselfish sharing. As example the movie It Could Happen to You (realitybased http://www.snopes.com/luck/lottery.htm; Cunningham, a thirty-year police veteran, was a regular diner at Sal's, where he liked to order linguine with clam sauce and maintain a steady flow of banter with Penzo, other employees, and regular customers. True to his lighthearted style, Cunningham was making a sort of joke on Friday evening, March 30, 1984, when he offered his favorite waitress an unusual tip: a half-interest in a lottery ticket. Each picked three of the six numbers; Cunningham walked across the street and bought their ticket. Penzo laughed, then forgot the incident until the next night, when the detective walked into Sal's Pizzeria after work with the winning ticket triumphantly clutched in his hand. It was worth six million dollars: three million for each of them. Cunningham, who ordinarily might have left a couple of dollars on the restaurant table, had no regrets about splitting the prize. After all, he says, Penzo helped pick the winning numbers). The movie balances Capras It's a wonderful life. It Could Happen to You is hollywoodfun. Reported by NYT 3 April 1984 it is framed as a New York Post fairy tale, as the 'Cinde-fucking-rella' Pretty Womans promised fairy tale. The photographer Angel Dupree narrates the seven chapters: 1. Cop gives waitress 2 $ M tip, 2. Lotto Robin Hood, 3. A night at the Plaza – Lotto Love, 4. The trial begins, 5. Lotto & waitress lost, 6. Their darkest hour and – after the first three minutes we know the happy ending: 7. Cop weds waitress. Foolish peoples 'silly' but good ideas are often responded by jealous greed and to want more, more and more. The naive good is luckily hidden behind the screaming selfish 'Muriels'. When finally Muriel is unable to take more of her husbands sharing style wants divorce, happy for his "A night at the Plaza Lotto Love" with his waitress. She wants not only his share of the lottery tip, also the promised away. But here she has crossed for Charlie the line. Charlie goes to court: "The trial begins" and the verdict: "The cop & waitress lost". The average rule: to get everything, everything must be lost is part of this fairy tale. "Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread", Proverbs 30:8. Attached the/a winning lottery ticket is the disappointment of all those who have bought a lottery ticket and lost, infecting the winner. The good example for this is Muriels sky rocking greed – and Charlie's lack to be infected, falling into the tempting trap. Charlie and soul mate Yvonne have the sharing in the backbone (as childpractised by the founder of the Camphill Movement Karl König 1902-1966 and showed to the staff for the disabled, among them dear friend Stefan Engqvist 1942-1980 (send to by food but gave the money to the needed in front of the store). When still in charge of the 'infected' money, Charlie and Yvonne try to balance with warm deeds: paying for the train journeys of passengers of the subway, treating the children of his neighborhood to a day out at Yankee Stadium, small gifts here and there unnoticed. And fail. When all is lost (Yvonne: "Because of me you have nothing", exclaims the waitress) the as a poor customer disguised photographer Angel asks at the Café the couple for a bowl of soup. The published photos in the next day's New York Post publicly eulogizes their willingness to feed a hungry and poor man in "Their darkest hour". Their generosity is answered by the citizens of New York City: thousands of letters with tips are send to them. This warm gesture is the answer why the screaming Michelle had the law with her. The verdict (above the judge are the words: In God we trust) tells that Gods ways are unpredictable not know but understandable then. The cop and the waitress had to win and to loose – getting everything. The 'Angel' Dupree and the 'angels' in Wim Wenders movie Wings of Desire help humans when they are able to contact their own angel, the child within. Some hear and listen, some not: the screaming environment is too loud. Muriel screams and can't. But Charlie can. But: was he really good all the way? When offering Yvonne the choice: Twice the tip amount, or half the lottery, if he won? Charlie was tempted for a moment, forgetting what he stands for. So Yvonne, tempted by choosing the infected lottery tip. But as sharing is their second nature, they woke up, avoiding in the last second deceiving corruption. Charlie's decision to go to court remembered him to be put back on track. Not a few remember and do not listen: "… give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread", Proverbs 30:8.