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"A Family Man" juggles two realities of the hard-driving headhunter Dane Jensen at work in a cutthroat business world in contrast to his struggles in maintaining the semblance of family life as a devoted husband and dad. When his son develops cancer, Dane's life changes as he learns lessons about his workaholic lifestyle. Much of the action is predictable, and much of the dialogue sounds scripted, as opposed organically deriving from character and situation. When an angry Dane berates his wife Elise in front a large family gathering at Thanksgiving, he broadcasts to the entire group that he "plays Santa Claus 365 days a year" and that Elise takes for granted his hard work and income derived from his grueling telemarketing exploits. Some of the dialogue even seems difficult to take seriously by the characters themselves, as serious conversations typically end on a comic note. The roles of the husband and wife are well-performed by Gerard Butler and Gretchen Mol. There is also a sensitive performance the actor playing in the kind doctor. Alfred Molina is outstanding as the unemployed engineer Louis William Wheeler. Lou's reaction in the bathroom to the news of his new job is priceless. An interesting part of the film was the little boy's fascination with the architecture of Chicago and his bonding with his dad when they visit five of the famous buildings. Those sites included The Rookery, The Tribune Tower, The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, The Wrigley Building, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Thomas Gale House. But once again, the dialogue sounded artificial as the father and son rattle off history lessons during their visits to the various buildings. "A Family Man" is a workmanlike film that cobbles together traditional elements of the film melodrama. But it does not transcend the limitations of that genre in shedding significant light on the pressures of succeeding in business and family simultaneously.

Living so busy in life and very limited for family, this movie reminds us that job and money should,t be the priority in our life. The family are what really matters in our real life and we should give time to the family before its late. acting, writing, romance, music, score, and camera, work is excellent and everyone should watch the movie to learn this important lesson before it late for us.

Sometimes we overlooked the truly important things in life and it takes something tragic to open our eyes. This film will be a reality check for everyone who watch it and it makes you appreciate they little things in life that at the end of it all it's what matters the most! A must see, this film is emotional, heart touching and heart warming. I'm not ashamed to say that I shed a few tears while watching it! Gerard Butler, hat off my friend! Great job on this movie! To be honest, the whole cast hat off to you all!!! Amazing movie!!!

There is a message - it's karma. What goes around comes around. As a headhunter he did bad things to get the numbers at work for example using middle aged Alfred Molina instead of getting him a job. He didn't spend enough time with his family. Then his kid gets sick with leukemia and he eventually does the right thing and voila his kid gets better and he lands on his feet. It's a preachy message and too simplistic. Some faults in this movie: Gretchen Mol plays his rather ungrateful wife. Bitching about his hours when he is trying to provide for his family. So even when her kid gets sick she doesn't seem sympathetic. In fact it's one of the least moving sick kid dramas on film. The world of head hunting is something you don't see on screen that much and kind of doubt it's that cutthroat. Gerard Butler has a bad accent - he shouldn't play an American in movies. Alison Brie is wasted as his out of place pretty rival colleague. Willem Dafoe is the big boss who is kind of a one dimensional horrible boss. Not a must watch.

This is truly a heart wrenching film, makes you wake up to family values and a must given well deserved ten stars. Every so often a film comes around that you'll remember forever. For me this is one of them. I hovered over to click and am very glad i did. Enjoy you wont regret it.

This movie shows in the best form, the true meaning of humanity and compassion. Every character was well crafted out and had depth. The part where lou, after telling his wife he'd finally gotten a job, went into the bathroom and wept for joy, is one of the "realest" moments you'd ever see in a movie. This movie deserves a better rating than it's got now. A Family Man helps to remind us all that in the end, we are human before anything else. beautiful movie!

Without going into specific details, there are quite a few disturbing pieces of rationale flung around in this movie. There is a religious belief that childhood illnesses can be attributed to the sins of the parents. That belief is core to this movie. This movie claims you can cure a sick child by simply not being a scumbag for about 10 seconds. Not only that, your entire life will be redeemed, and yet essentially unchanged. There are other disturbing claims. Like if you hire an aging Boomer your business will grow exponentially. Also, that being a scumbag from a mansion does not count as official scumbaggery. Even drunken *-mongering can be redeemed, and yet continue unabated. Apparently this is the new American Dream - a feel good movie for the unrepentant.

Excellent movie reminding us what is really important in one's life. Will make you reflect on the "real" priorities and appreciate what you already have. A movie that teaches us an important lesson about living an honest and authentic life. Simplicity is a blessing when you live in the city jungle.

Ah, the new movie starring Gerard Butler, the poor man's Clive Owen, always up for some good all-American entertainment that makes you think but also makes you smile. This one's about a headhunter whose life revolves around closing deals in survival-of-the-fittest boiler room. He battles his top rival for control of the company, but then his oldest child falls seriously ill. Also starring, Gretchen Mol as the loving but ever-suffering wife, Willem Dafoe as the ruthless boss, Alison Brie as the rival and Alfred Molina as the token solid supporting male character. First and foremost, „A Family Man" is a genre movie, which means it's produced and put together of clichés in hope of finding a suitable mainstream audience. The approach is pretty solid one, using several drama subgenres in order to appeal to wider circle of cinema-goers, including sick child story, a middle class American success story, finding yourself again story and some „Wall Street" type high-octane competence *. The execution is actually pretty solid too. The able cast are doing their darndest best to act through all the material, and there's a lot of it. 108 minute movie may feel quite a bit longer, at least for those who have seen way too many movies to take all these clichés and workmanlike storytelling seriously. On the other hand, those who still watch movies as just a nice way of passing time, or aren't tired of bland dramas made of middle- class dreams and aspirations, can definitely find some entertainment here. They don't even have to think how to feel because the movie manipulates you in all the right directions at the right time. I am taking a wild guess that "A Family Man" is most suitable for girlish audience, but it will also surely feel in the right place when it's 2 am and you're desperately trying to find something new to watch with Butler starring in it. He's a doing a fine job too, the whole result relies on his manly charm and grunting. All in all, there's nothing wrong with „A Family Man". It's just there's nothing terribly exciting either, with the creative bar set relatively low and all. I hope I didn't sound too ironic here or something, I quite liked the movie for what it is.