It Could Happen To You (1994)

Directed by Andrew Bergman. With Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez, Wendell Pierce. A police officer promises to share his lottery ticket with a waitress in lieu of a tip.

Loosely based on a true story, this uneven romantic comedy depicts the unexpected way in which a winning lottery ticket unites a pair of strangers. Waitress Yvonne (Bridget Fonda) first meets police officer Charlie (Nicolas Cage) when he eats in her restaurant. Realizing that he doesn't have enough money to give her a tip, Charlie promises Yvonne to split any winnings from the lottery ticket he just bought. The skeptical Yvonne dismisses Charlie as just another cheapskate until he wins four million dollars and, much to Yvonne's surprise, decides to honor the agreement. His action becomes front page news and wins public acclaim, but it doesn't go over nearly so well with Charlie's wife Muriel (Rosie Perez), who has her own plans for the money. Muriel's shallow, greedy behavior disgusts Charlie, who finds himself spending more and more time with Yvonne, developing a friendship that threatens to blossom into something more. Jane Anderson's screenplay stresses the relationship between Charlie and Yvonne's characters over the situation's comic potential; this earnest tone will please romance fans but may disappoint viewers expecting the farcical comedy of writer/director Andrew Bergman's and Cage's previous effort, Honeymoon in Vegas.

"It Could Happen to You" tells the kind of story you vaguely remember reading about in the papers. Or maybe you didn't. But it's the kind of story you easily could have read about, and if you had read it, you'd probably think, "Jeez, why didn't this happen to me?" The movie's original title, which I like better than this one, was "Cop Gives Waitress $2 Million Tip," and I think we can all imagine ourselves as the waitress in a situation like this, although the cop might be more of a stretch. The movie is about a cop named Charlie (Nicolas Cage), who orders coffee for himself and his partner in a greasy spoon, and has enough for the coffee but not for a tip. So he tells the waitress, named Yvonne (Bridget Fonda) that he'll give her half of winnings if the lottery ticket in his billfold is a winner. The next day, his number is drawn, and his share is $4 million, so of course Yvonne is due $2 million.

The original title of "It Could Happen to You" was "Cop Tips Waitress $2M," which is the kind of title that sums things up pretty nicely.

An irrepressible romantic comedy about a humble cop who leaves a two million dollar tip to a hard-luck waitress. Stars Nicholas Cage and Bridget Fonda.

"It Could Happen to You" Trailer 1994 Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez

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Overview of It Could Happen to You, 1994, directed by Andrew Bergman, with Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez, at Turner Classic Movies