1/5 White female as the only acceptable feminity
  by Carol Hunt
This is an extremely unfortunate film. People need to be extremely careful what messages they are willing to accept as good messages. This story really falls apart when you analyze Bridget Fonda's character and recognize that she has very few qualities worth identifying. Her character is presented as the ultimate victim. She is supposed to be down on her luck, but that became obnoxious when you recognize that she is does not have a difficult life. The worst thing that has happened to her through the entire film is that her career as an actress flopped and she is mildly in debt because of a poor first marriage. Her seriousness about her debt is supposed to somehow make her a victim that needs to be saved by the right man. Her life isn't difficult. All she has to do is wait tables and she cannot manage that without being depressed; she has no responsibilities beside going to work and she cannot even find a job that she likes. Her character also has the annoying habit of trying to make her own ignorance cute. She doesn't understand what killed her beloved dog and never finds out. Poor Bridget...her dog died when she was a little girl.

The more serious implication of this film is that it reaffirms racial stereotypes. The film's underlying message is that a white man should never be with a minority woman and is justified in committing adultery if his current wife is non white. Fonda's character is childish, but somehow portrayed as the right mate for Cage. It is really sickening when you analyze Fonda's character and notice that beneath her constant complaining she is not ultimately sweet but greedy and deliberately engaging in an affair with another woman's husband. She has an apartment and a job--she does not need the lottery ticket and should not have taken it. Credit card debit is not an excuse to take money from a married man and is so selfish it is sickening. She does not feel bad about this at all and does not refuse the money because the other woman is colored. She feels like she is entitled to the belongings of a white male.

This movie contains the worst stereotype against a Latino female that I have ever viewed. Muriel is mean, greedy, childish (all the women in this film are extremely childish), and reduced to her body--she gets breast implants even though she is already physically beautiful. Within the first few minutes of the film Muriel explains that she is the kind of person that "needs money." She is domineering and yells at her husband. She wears beautiful outfits not because she has a love of beauty but because she is vain. When given money she puts a picture of herself on the wall further degrading attractive minority females. She supposedly lived with her husband for long periods of time but cannot understand him. She is stupid and disloyal. She dreams of winning the lottery not because of her economic situation (a minority female stuck in poverty) but because she is so greedy. She is so childish that she shrieks like a banshee when she wins the jackpot.

This movie does not resemble what it is like to be a minority female in the United States and ultimately portrays the life of a simple white girl as being more tragic. Then follows suit this case for the justification of a single white female stealing back the white male that accidentally married the wrong woman (a minority). By degrading the relationship of the married couple all interracial marriages are degraded.

As far as intercity life is concerned, this movie is pathetic. As a decent guy Cage has no material wants; this is portrayed by his willingness to raise children in the inner city without seeing a problem with it. Let's consider just why it might be a problem to raise children in the inner city and why love and humility will not make up for poor economic conditions. It is nothing more than a white woman's fantasy and justification for her own jealousy and belief in her ultimate superiority over other women. We are supposed to believe that females are so stupid that they cannot understand what poverty is really like and think that it can be solved by kissing aids patients and giving soup to the homeless. We get the typical black cop, who is ultimately useless but a dutiful side kick to the white man who is the actual hero. This role is reproduced in so many films that it is downright the hallmark of a bad film. Another hallmark is the dishonest Arab taxi driver who makes his appearance and the Arab that robs the mini mart. Asians are portrayed as racist work alcoholics(another common stereotype). It is amazing how every negative human quality appears in the character of a minority while the white Cage pleads for people to be reasonable.

As far as the divorce between Muriel and Cage is concerned, Muriel is somehow twisted into being wrong. Her husband insults her and parades the affair that he is having with another woman in front of her and the news, and somehow she is not entitled to the winning ticket and only gets it because of a ruthless lawyer. Nothing is mentioned about how no decent man would take his lottery earning and split it with some bimbo he met the day before (and Fonda is a bimbo) rather than with his wife. I am ashamed of this film and it isn't romantic.


4/5 relax and enjoy
  by rex davis
This movie is simply about two nice people who end up with crappy marriage partners and find each other. They fall in love and live happily ever after. Their "exes" get what they deserve. Hardly a complicated plot.

After reading the good and bad reviews on this movie, it is disheartening to see how many people seem to think every movie must be neck deep in reality to be enjoyable. This movie is based on a true story - but it is only a movie! It's not a documentary nor intended to be. The critics must think that writers, directors, and actors are idiots because they can't see what's *wrong* with the script.

It's the kind of movie you watch if you're a romantic or just want to believe the world isn't as crappy a place as it treated you today. So open a bottle of your favorite drink, take off your shoes, and sit back to see two good actors put a smile on your face.


4/5 A nice story well presented
  by Jane
This is a kind of story you can relate to. The two main characters seem to have a good chemistry, and hot Perez is wonderful as the awful character she is expected to be. Not very far from the typical romantic comedy though.

1/5 I wish it didn't happen!
  by Julius
The movie started off with promise but it just dragged on and on. Nicolas Cage always finds himself in these clunkers. Other than The Rock, all of his other movies I have seen sucked. Rosie Perez basically reprised her role as Gloria from White Men Can't Jump except this time she's about living large. At least Gloria had redeeming qualities but her character Muriel in this movie was flat out annoying. And I hated her lawyer who slandered Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda's characters through the press. It was so corny that he got that stuff to actually make print. I don't understand the hype with Bridget Fonda. Just because your the daughter of Jane Fonda, the grand daughter of Peter Fonda and the niece of Henry Fonda doesn't mean you're automatically hailed as a great actress. Her performance was very flat and she was just as annoying as Helen Hunt was from As Good As It Gets. The movie just got lame after the lottery went down. This movie is so bad that I wish seeing it never happened to me!

3/5 From fact to flatline fiction
  by J. A. Eyon (Seattle - USA)
The actual story behind the highly fictionalized movie script could have made a really good movie. According to the urban legend website SNOPES, the real events involved a not-so-young waitress and a not-so-young police detective who together select the winning numbers to a $6 million jackpot. There was no hint of romance between the two. But that would be too open-ended for the cookie cutter mentalities behind this movie. They must have went into a conference room -- or a lunch room -- or a diner -- and derived this formulaic romance between two unhappily married people.

Their result was this plot bringing together a Prince Charming, a Cinderella, a the Wicked Witch of New York. But they forget to include a nice dramatic flow of events. I just didn't experience any peaks and very little emotional depth. In the end, I wasn't satisfied.

At least Nicholas Cage makes the most of the opportunity to be normal and charming rather than quirky and charming (one of his first such efforts). He gives the movie whatever depth it attains. Pretty Bridge Fonda gives her usual quiet, unexciting performance. They're responsible for most of the positive rating I give this movie.

Rosie Perez, unfortunately, overwhelms the entire proceedings with nasally witchiness. And that's not the memory I want to take away from a movie.

So, I'm looking forward to the remake based on my own soon-to-be lottery success... Oooh, Briii-dget....