SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

grantss Anthony P Kirby is a wealthy banker. In order to clinch his next deal his company, Kirby & Company, is buying up all the properties in a neighbourhood. Everyone has sold, except one. Martin Vanderhof won't budge, not for any offer. He is happy where he is, living with his daughter, son-in-law, two granddaughters, grandson- in-law and a few other people in a community largely free of life's pressures. Mr Kirby's son, Tony, is a new-appointed Vice President of Kirby & Company and is in love with his secretary, Alice Sycamore, Mr Vanderhof's granddaughter. Their relationship, and the property issue, puts the two families, the Kirbys and Vanderhofs, on a collision course. It's more than a clash of families but a clash of outlooks, ideals and what's important in life.Directed by Frank Capra who later went on to direct It's A Wonderful Life. Like It's A Wonderful Life, You Can't Take It With You has a warm, fuzzy, sugary-sweet yet noble and liberating central message. In It's A Wonderful Life, Capra surrounded that message with a wonderful plot, beautifully and sensitively executed. With You Can't Take It With You, the execution is flawed, to the point that it negates the message.From the beginning of You Can't Take It With You there is a folksiness and raw, naïve idealism that makes the movie seem more like a children's fantasy than profoundly-themed adult drama. No subtlety at all and it only gets worse once we meet the collection of oddballs in the commune. They were meant to provide light entertainment but for the most part they are silly and irritating. Particularly irritating was the Russian guy. I presume his schtick was meant to be funny, but really he is just an obnoxious dickhead. Xylophone guy was also pretty bad – pretty much a rednecked simpleton.So, little to no engagement with the "good guys" of the piece. Add to this the fact that Capra draws Kirby as a pretty much stereotypical, one-dimensional heartless villain and we have a movie with little in the way of character depth. In fact, I was so disengaged, the more silly the "heroes'" antics became, and the more Capra turned Kirby into a cartoon villain, the more, out of a sense of rebellion, I rooted for Kirby!Ending can be spotted a mile off, the movie is that predictable.Thankfully Capra didn't try to duplicate the formula when he made It's A Wonderful Life.

Sean Lamberger The cheery, upbeat tale of a proudly bohemian family and their efforts to find common ground with the snooty, stuffed-shirt parents of a future son-in-law. I don't usually go for such brash, in-your-face optimism, but something about this ragtag group of merry, welcoming, open-hearted characters really struck a chord. Though it brims with loud personality - new faces pile in by the fistful each time we visit the house - there's a shocking level of character development at play here. That can be partially attributed to its roots in theater, and the associated volumes of dialog that are breathlessly peppered in, but I think just as much credit must go to the actors, who commit wholeheartedly to their roles (no matter how silly) and smoothly grant fast, earnest credibility. Stereotypes abound in the plot, from the sinister banker looking to tear down a merry little village to the happy-go-lucky grandpa who's always got the perfect sentimental speech prepared, but that legitimacy of character (plus the film's age) makes it all feel like a natural fit. And really, don't some themes ring eternal? A true classic that warms the heart and reminds us to slow down and ensure we're still getting all we want from life.

gavin6942 A man from a family of rich snobs becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family.Frank Capra has a certain sensibility that people associate with him. And that sensibility you expect will certainly be evident here. This is like a cross between his "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Arsenic and Old Lace". The eccentric scenes are great, with dancing and music for no real reason. There is a discussion of income taxes and what good they serve. (Keep in mind income tax started around 1913, so people of the time knew an era without it.) And best of all, we have a rat. A rat with hair on it. That cracked me up pretty hard.

mmallon4 You Can't Take It With You follows the Sycamore/Vandrerhof household; the ultimate eccentric family. In fact eccentric probably isn't the right word, they're complete nuts. They live a counter cultural lifestyle of not working or playing taxes (and somehow getting away with it) and doing whatever makes them happy without a care in the world; people who aren't afraid to live. There are like cartoon characters who can twist their way out of any situation with people more in tune with reality, such as when Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) manages to convince the timid Mr Poppins (Donald Meek) to stop throwing his life away working as bureaucrat and start having fun. The Sycamores/Vanderhofs are family we probably can't be in real life but wish we could.Even with a large ensemble cast, Lionel Barrymore is the actor at the heart of the film in a role which is the polar opposite of his part of Henry F. Potter in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. The scene in which Vanderhof is confronted by a government official played by the always miserable looking Charles Lane feels like a dig at big government. When Grandpa asks the official what the government gives him for his money he is given the response of "The government gives you everything", emphases on the word everything, followed by Vanderhof's humorous but thought provoking rebuttals. The family's refusal to pay taxes may be ethically questionable but it's a movie fantasy and could never happen in real life. Don't you wish you could deal with bureaucracies as easily as Grandpa Vanderhof?One of Grandpa Vanderhof's other fascinating moments is his monologue on "ismmania" although I'm quite sure what to make of it ("when things go a little bad nowadays you go out and get yourself an 'ism' and you're in business"). The message feels similar to a 1948 animated short "Make Mine Freedom" in how the danger of isms can cripple the people. All we need is our Americanism as Vanderhof proclaims, which itself is an ism but I digress. Regardless his line which following this, "Lincoln said, with malice toward none, with charity to all - Nowadays they say think the way I do or I'll bomb the daylights out of you"; that gives me chill every time.One the sweetest, most heartwarming scenes in any film ever is when Grandpa Vanderhof tells Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur) about his love for his deceased wife and how the room still smells of her perfume. Ugh, it just kills my poor little soul; a perfect display of Capra's gift for directing very intimate, emotional scenes in which the rest of the world ceases to exist. Likewise there doesn't seem to be any actress whom James Stewart didn't share a great dynamic together. James Stewart and Jean Arthur share a perfect chemistry together, pairing the embodiment of the everyman and the embodiment of the everywoman.Non conformity is the name of the game in You Can't Take It With You. Grandpa Vanderhof understands the preciousness of life as he pursues his own interests and his own forms of fulfilment. He encourages others to follow their dreams and not submit to the will of others. In one scene Alice speaks of Grandpa's thoughts on how "most people are run by fear, the fear of what they eat, fear of what they drink, fear of their jobs, their future, their health, scared to save money and to spend it. People who commercialise on fear scare you to death to sell you something you don't need". Amen sister! - Only thing to fear is fear itself. You Can't Take It With You promotes what we would now refer to as a libertarian mindset, live and let live as long as you're not hurting anyone. As Tony Kirby (James Stewart) tells his father Antony P. Kirby (Edward Arnold) towards the end of the film, "I think this business is great. It's good for you because you like it. I don't, and I never will". In many ways the Sycamore/Vandrerhof family is the embodiment of the American Dream. They own their property, each member pursues their individual dreams and they are above all happy. They live their live without inference from the government or other such bodies: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. One of the other messages derived from You Can't Take It With You is the same as that to come from the ending of It's a Wonderful Life in which the townspeople come to George Bailey's aid, giving him money so he won't have to do jail time followed by the final message from the angel Clarence; "No man is a failure who has friends". A very similar incident occurs in YCTIWY in which friends and neighbors of the Sycamores pay for their fine in night court so they won't be locked up. Likewise the family's arrest for being mistakenly identified as communists feels like a foreshadowing to McCarthyism. Then again they should have thought that a fireworks show based on the Russian Revolution as well as advertising it perhaps isn't the greatest idea; it stinks!There are those who will hear the name Frank Capra and have a reaction along the lines of "Oh Frank Capra, sentimental, saccharine, manipulative rubbish". I don't make apologies when I say that dismissing a film for being sentimental is the nonsense film criticism to end all nonsense criticisms; it stinks! Newsflash, stories have been manipulating people's emotions since the dawn of time. Pulling of effective sentimentality is a skill and I have not come across a single good reason as to why it is a problem. You Can't Take It With You is Capra at his most sentimental, manipulative, saccharine and all those other dirty words and I love it for that. So if that's the crime of the century, then lock me up for life. Capra-corn and proud of it!