EFL Movie Study Guide for:
The Family Man
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www.krigline.com.cn
Story: Jack is a rich,
successful stock broker. One Christmas Eve, he gets a glimpse
of what his life would have been like if he had made different choices. What
did he give up by not marrying his college girlfriend and raising a family?
This movie will give you a lot to think about, especially if you are a
college student who thinks that a good salary is the only thing to look for
in a job. (2000; Nicholas Cage, Tea Leoni; Universal Pictures; romance,
comedy; PG-13; 2 hr)
Setting: New York City and a nearby New Jersey suburb
People and proper nouns:
Jack Campbell (Nicholas Cage): a single, successful businessman who runs a
large NY financial firm
Kate Reynolds (Tea Leoni): in the opening scene: a young law student and
Jack’s girlfriend (later we see that Kate is a single, successful lawyer,
and during the "glimpse" she is Jack's wife and the mother of Annie and
Josh)
Peter Lassiter: he owns Jack’s financial firm
Alan Mintz: works for Jack (and later, he has taken Jack’s leadership job)
“Big Ed”: Kate’s father; owns a tire retail store
Arnie: Jack’s best friend (during the middle of the movie)
Black Angel (a black man who has no name): this man has supernatural powers
and acts sort of like an angel (or the Monkey King?)
Wall Street: a synonym for the financial industry of the USA; home of the
Wall Street Stock Exchange
Ferrari, Caddy/Cadillac, minivan: types of cars (the first two are
expensive; a minivan is a family car)
Synopsis:
Jack Campbell, a successful and aggressive Wall Street stock
broker, lives a happy, single life. On Christmas Eve, he meets an
“angel” who asks, “What do you need, Jack?” Jack replies: “Nothing; I have
everything I want.” Well, the next morning, the “angel” puts Jack in a
“glimpse” of what his life would have been like if he had married his
college girlfriend, 13 years earlier. In this “glimpse,” he and Kate live in
New Jersey (about an hour away from New York City), and they have two
children (Annie is about 5 years old; Josh is still in diapers). Instead of
being president of P.K. Lassiter Investment Company, he now helps his
father-in-law run a retail tire store (he quit his Wall Street job after
“Big Ed” had a heart attack, thereby saving the family’s company).
Jack’s Ferrari and expensive suits are gone; he now has a broken mini-van
and “mall-bought” inferior clothing (he calls them “sub-par”). After he
realizes that there is nothing he can do to get his “real” life back, he
settles into this “glimpse” life, and finds the value of deep friendships,
family relationships, and true love. Although he misses the comfort and
power of his job in “The City”, he realizes that he never stopped loving
Kate (and grows to love his “glimpse” children). He is no longer “confident
and sure of everything,” but eventually he decides that “there’s no place
I’d rather be” than with his family.
Nouns/verbs (vocabulary):
acid trip: an overdose
of drugs that make you “see things” that are not real
cocky: acting overly
proud
eggnog: a drink often
associated with Christmas (like Moon Cakes=Mid Autumn Festival)
*to erase: to remove sth,
so that no one can see it anymore
*fidelity: faithful to
one’s obligations (responsibilities), especially “sexually faithful” to
one’s spouse. (A “high fidelity” recording faithfully/accurately gives you
the true way music originally sounded.)
to flush: to quickly
clean or wash away, like the contents of a toilet
*glimpse: a short
experience of or look at sth that helps you to begin to understand it
gonna (oral English):
"going to" (you should never write the word "gonna" because it is not
really a word)
*heart attack: a sudden,
serious medical condition where someone’s heart stops (many people can
survive these attacks if treated quickly)
*internship: the last
step of professional training after you finish college; a company (like
Barclay’s Bank in London) agrees to train you for a year, while paying you a
bit less than you would earn later. The right internship can make a big
difference in one’s career.
*lotto or lottery: a
gambling game (often state-run) where you buy a ticket in hope of winning
money (you get cash for a winning ticket at a place that sells tickets, and
the store owner gets money, too)
*merger: (e.g., Med Tech
& Global); when two companies combine to become one bigger company; some
mergers are “hostile,” i.e. one of the companies does not want to become
part of the other
*naïve (negative
connotation): innocent but immature; overly optimistic because of a lack
of experience
*nonprofit (law firm): a
company created to help needy people (instead of trying to make lots of
money for themselves)
*perk: something you get
legally from your job in addition to wages/salary
a prick (offensive
term): a stupid, unpleasant male who "isn't fun to be around"
*precocious: mature for
one’s age (esp referring to a little child, often in a negative way)
*prejudiced=bigoted:
having strong negative feelings toward everyone of a different race,
religion, political viewpoint, etc., esp. when such prejudice keeps you from
listening to anyone with these differences
*to redeem: to get
something good because someone promised that thing under certain
circumstances (e.g., the government promises to give money in exchange for a
winning lotto ticket; you get 5
元
discount on new
shoes if you “redeem” a coupon from the newspaper). The noun form is
“redemption.”
*stock (or shares
of stock): an investment that lets your “own” part of a company (“Do you own
any stock?” “Yes, I buy shares worth $200 every month, as part of my
retirement savings plan.”)
stock broker: someone
who buys and sells stock for others, earning a percentage of the cost as his
fee (EF Hutton is a famous financial firm)
stock trader: a person
or company that makes money by buying and selling stock, and sometimes by
convincing corporations to merge
*suburb: the area around
the outside of a city (many suburbs are really small cities) where people
live, often driving to work in a nearby city
wanna (oral English):
"want to" (you should never write the word "wanna" because it is not
really a word)
*wrinkled: a synonym for
“elderly”, referring to the lines or folds that show age on an older
person’s face
Phrases or sayings:
tunnel vision: the
tendency to consider only one part of sth. instead of all parts
*you blew it: you missed
the chance for something good
*talk turkey: to talk
seriously about details, esp. in business
*in a nutshell: in
summary
an old flame: a former
girlfriend or boyfriend; a past love
a gift with ten zeros:
$10,000,000,000
*to deal with (dealt
with): to handle or solve sth like a problem or need
*to screw up: to make a
mistake
news at 11:00: used as
if one is giving a headline for the evening news program, as if to say “they
should talk about this on the TV news”
Discussion:
(1) Talk about the
things that people wish they could “do over” or “do differently.” (Make a
list.)
(2) Use examples from
the film to illustrate how Jack treats people (neighbors, people at his
company, friends, customers, children, others).
(3) Work with your
partner to think of differences between Jack’s life in the “glimpse” and
before/after it.
(4) As you consider your
first job after college, what factors will be most important to you?
Explain.
(5) With a partner, come
up with five ethical principles you could see in the movie: for example, “It
is not good to make your child the last one to be picked up, otherwise it
will hurt his feelings." (Annie tells Jack to pick her up at school earlier
and not let her be the last one left.)
(6) With a partner, come
up with five business or economics principles you could see in the movie:
for example, “Offering consistent customers some discount may bring a good
return to your business." (As a tire retailer, Jack offers an old customer a
certain percent discount).
(7) The last scene in
the movie shows Jack and Kate talking in the New York airport. We are left
to imagine for ourselves what the final outcome will be. What do you think
will happen next?
Sentences/dialogs from the movie:
(some are from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218967/quotes) Blue
sections are particularly important.
1.
Jack [after Kate says she has a “bad
feeling” about Jack going to London for a year]: Look, we’re at the airport.
Nobody ever thinks clearly at the airport. So we should just trust the
decision we already made. You’ve been accepted into one of the best law
schools in the country. I’ve got this internship at Barclay’s Bank.
We have a great plan, honey.
Kate: You wanna do something great,
Jack? Let’s flush the plan! Let’s start our lives right now, today. I
have no idea what this life is going to look like, but I know that it has
the both of us in it, and I choose “us.” What we have together, that’s what
makes us great.
Jack: I love you. And one year in
London is not going to change that. A hundred years couldn’t change that.
2. Jack: Let me see the [lottery]
ticket.
Black Angel [talking to Jack, but he
has been pointing a gun at the prejudiced store clerk who won’t
redeem his ticket]: Was I talking to you?
Jack: Maybe I'll buy it from you. You
know, make a little business deal.
Black Angel: “Stupid ass white boy in
$2000 suit gets capped [murdered] trying to be a hero,” news at 11:00.
That’s what you wanna see? DO YOU WANNA DIE?
Jack: No. Look, I’m talking about a
business deal. I buy the ticket from you for $200. I take it to a store
where the guy behind the counter doesn’t have a death wish [doesn’t want to
die]. I just made myself a quick $38. It’s just a business deal.
Black Angel: All right. [talking to the
clerk] You blew it, B. This ticket was real. Come on, Jack, let’s get
out of here. [Note: In America, the government gives money to the store if
they redeem winning lottery tickets.]
3. Kate [waking up, the first morning of
Jack’s “glimpse”]: Jack. Strong coffee. [i.e., “go make strong
coffee”]
4. [Jack is very frustrated after no one in
NY recognizes him, and he learns that Mr. Mintz is now the president of
“his” company]
Black Angel: You brought this on
yourself. “I’ve got everything I need.” Does that sound familiar?
Jack: You mean, ‘cause you thought I
was cocky, I'm now on a permanent acid trip?
Black Angel: The way you intervened in
that store last night… You did a good thing there, Jack.
Jack: Please just tell me what’s
happening to me in plain English, without the mumbo-jumbo.
Black Angel: This is a glimpse,
Jack.
Jack: A glimpse of what?
Black Angel: You’re gonna have
to figure that out for yourself…
Jack: I just want my life back. Now,
what’s it gonna take? You wanna talk turkey? Let’s talk
turkey. How much money?
Black Angel: It doesn’t work like that.
You’ve got to figure this out for yourself.
Jack: I don’t have time for this right
now. I'm in the middle of a deal!
Black Angel: Well, you’re working on a
new deal now, baby.
5. Arnie [quoting something Jack told him
in the past]: Do you remember what you said? “Don't screw up the best thing
in your life just because you're a little unsure about who you are.”
6. [Still confused about the “glimpse” he
has found himself in, Jack returns to Kate’s house]
Kate [angry]: What kind of a man leaves
his family Christmas morning, without a word about where he is going?
Jack: Could you please stop yelling at
me? [Kate can’t understand his explanation, and then Jack starts ringing a
small bell that Black Angel gave him, hoping that the angel will rescue him.
Annie hears it, and takes it to put on her bike.]
Jack: That's mine. I need that back!
She took my bell.
Kate: You missed the whole thing: the
pancakes and the presents. You spent six hours putting her bike together for
Annie, and then you didn’t even get to see the look on her face when she
opened it. You missed Christmas, Jack. But we don’t have time for this. Go
get dressed for the party.
Jack: I’m not going to a party.
Kate: Fine. I’ll tell my mother she
doesn’t have to watch the kids because you’ll be here.
Jack: I’ll be ready to go in ten
minutes.
7. [After a Christmas party, Jack is
walking the dog in the snow.]
Jack (to the dog): If you could take
a dump (大便)
sometime in this century, then we could go home where it's warm. If I can
remember how to get home. You remember, don’t you girl?
8. Annie [who is trying to figure out why
Jack is acting so strange]: You’re not really my dad, are you?
Jack: No, I’m not. I work on Wall
Street, you know, with the big buildings. I live in an apartment with a
doorman. And I can buy almost anything I want. This isn’t my life. It’s just
a glimpse.
Annie [she now thinks that Jack was
created by aliens, to take her father’s place for a while]: They did a
pretty good job.
Jack: Who did?
Annie: The aliens, in the mothership.
You look just like him.
Jack: Thanks. Slightly better-looking,
though, right? [Annie starts to cry.] Oh, you’re not going to start crying,
are you? I don’t think I could really deal with that right now.
Annie: Do you like kids?
Jack: On a case-by-case basis.
Annie: Do you know how to make
chocolate milk?
Jack: I think I could figure it out.
Annie: Promise you won't kidnap me and
my brother and plant stuff in our brains?
Jack: Sure.
Annie: Welcome to earth.
9. Jack: You were always a very pretty girl
in college. There’s no question about that. But this--You’ve really grown
into a beautiful woman.
Kate: How can you do that?
Jack: What?
Kate: Look at me like you haven't seen
me every day for the last 13 years.
10. Jack [angry, after wasting a lot of time
at the shopping mall]]: I'm sorry I was such a saint before, and I'm such a
prick now!
11. [After getting mad at the mall, Jack and
Kate are talking about their past 13 years of marriage; apparently, getting
pregnant with Annie was not exactly “planned”.]
Jack: Yeah, that was a very unexpected
moment. But what are you gonna do?
Kate: I think it turned out all right,
don’t you?
Jack: Yeah. I really like Annie.
Kate (sarcastically): Well, good, Jack.
Maybe we'll keep her.
12. Arnie [trying to talk Jack out of having
a sexual affair with a friend]: A little flirtation is harmless but you're
dealing with fire here. The “Fidelity Bank and Trust" is a tough
creditor. You make a deposit somewhere else, they close your account -
FOREVER. [Note: Some banks have the word “Fidelity” and “Trust” in their
title, and “fidelity” and “trust” are keys to a good marriage, so this is a
remarkable play on words.]
13. [They are celebrating their anniversary
at an expensive restaurant in New York.]
Jack: I feel like I’m living someone
else’s life. I remember I used to walk to work, and I had a warm bialy in my
hand, and a hot cup of coffee from Dean & Deluca, the crisp feeling of
The Wall Street Journal, the smell of leather from my briefcase. I used
to be so sure about everything; confident. I knew exactly who I was and what
I wanted. And then one morning I woke up and suddenly it was all different.
Kate: Worse, do you mean?
Jack: No. Well, maybe a few things, but
mostly just different. And that’s okay. But I never used to be like this,
Kate. I was the guy who had it all figured out. I had no doubts. I had no
regrets.
Kate: And now?
Jack: Now I don’t. I don’t have it all
figured out.
Kate: Me neither.
Jack: But you always seem so certain.
Kate: Do you think there aren’t
mornings when I wake up and wonder, “What the hell am I doing in New
Jersey?” My office is a dump. I answer my own phone, and you’ve seen my
[disgraceful] paycheck. Can you imagine a life where everything was just
easy? You know, where you ask for things, and people just bring them to you?
Jack: It’s wonderful!
Kate: I think about it too. I wonder
about what kind of life I would have had if I hadn’t married you. Then I
realize I’ve just erased all the things in my life that I’m sure
about. You and the kids.
Jack: Good things.
Kate: Yeah. [after a pause] What
are you sure about?
Jack: I’m sure that right now, there’s
nowhere else I’d rather be than here with you.
14. Kate: When you got on that plane, I was
sure it was over. I left the airport afraid I'd never see you again. And
then you showed up the very next day. That was a good surprise. You know, I
think about the decision you made... Maybe I was being naïve, but I
believed that we would grow old together in this house. That we'd spend
holidays here and have our grandchildren come visit us here. I had this
image of us, all grey and wrinkled, and me working in the garden and
you re-painting the deck. But things change. If you need this [job],
Jack--if you really need this--I will take these kids from a life they love
and I'll take myself from the only home we've ever shared together and I'll
move wherever you need to go. I'll do that because I love you. I love you,
and that's more important to me than our address. I choose “us”.
15. Jack [when he sees Black Angel again
after a few months in the “glimpse”]: You’re not sending me back…. You can't
keep coming in and out of people's lives, messing things up. It's not right.
Black Angel: A glimpse, by
definition, is an impermanent thing.
Jack: I’ve got kids. I’m going home.
16. Jack [in “real life”, trying to solve a
panic on Christmas, says he will fly to Colorado to be with a client; Jack
is somewhat depressed after waking up from the “glimpse”]: Then I'm going to
spend four hours skiing alone. Completely and utterly alone. I'm going to do
that because that is my life; that's what's real... and there's nothing I
can do to change that.
17. Jack: We have a house in Jersey. We have
two kids, Annie and Josh. Annie's not much of a violin player, but she tries
real hard. She's a little precocious, but that's only because she
says what's on her mind. And when she smiles...wow! And Josh, he has your
eyes. He doesn't say much, but we know he's smart. He's always got his eyes
open, he's always watching us. Sometimes you can look at him and you just
know he's learning something new. It's like witnessing a miracle. The house
is a mess, but it's ours--after 122 more payments, it's going to be ours.
And you, you're a nonprofit lawyer. That's right, you're completely
nonprofit, but that doesn't seem to bother you. And we're in love. After 13
years of marriage we're still unbelievably in love. You won't even let me
touch you until I've said it. I sing to you. Not all the time, but
definitely on special occasions. We've dealt with our share of surprises and
made a lot of sacrifices but we've stayed together. You see, you're a better
person than I am. And it made me a better person to be around you. I don't
know, maybe it was all just a dream. Maybe I went to bed one lonely night in
December and I imagined it all. But I swear, nothing has ever felt more
real. And if you get on that plane right now, it'll disappear forever. I
know we could both go on with our lives and we'd both be fine, but I've seen
what we could be like together. And I choose “us”.
Comparisons
between Jack’s “real” and “glimpse” lives:
The film starts and ends
showing us Jack (and Kate) in “real life”, but the middle of the film shows
us a glimpse of what their lives would have been like if they had gotten
married 13 years before.
1. In real life, Jack is
single and tells the “angel” he doesn’t need anything to make his life
complete. In Jack’s glimpse, he wakes up and finds that he is married and
has two children and a dog!
2. In real life, Jack is
the president of a large financial corporation and works on Wall Street in
New York City. In Jack’s glimpse, Jack helps his father-in-law run a retail
tire store.
3. In real life, Jack
lives in a large, expensive apartment and drives a nice sports car. In
Jack’s glimpse, he lives in a New Jersey suburb (about an hour from New
York) and drives a mini-van.
4. Though the successful
Jack felt like his life was complete, after being in the glimpse for a
while, Jack begins to think that he would be much happier if he had a
family.
5. In Jack’s glimpse,
Kate is a nonprofit lawyer (like she planned to be while in college; poorly
paid, giving legal help to people who cannot afford to pay much). In real
life, Kate is a successful, well-paid lawyer, soon to move to Paris with a
large law firm.
