Alex Sergeant writes on the therapeutic power of It’s a Wonderful Life for The Conversation

Dr Alexander Sergeant, Lecturer in Digital Media Production, has published a new article in The Conversation exploring why Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life is far more than a feel-good Christmas film. In “A Wonderful Life is not a ‘feel-good’ Christmas film – but it is incredibly therapeutic,” Sergeant argues that the film offers a deeply therapeutic exploration of life’s challenges with a message grounded in what we are beginning to understand about the foundations of human well-being.

The article examines how, despite its reputation as a heartwarming holiday classic, the film centres for much of its runtime on a man’s attempt to take his own life, confronting themes of anxiety, financial ruin and despair. Sergeant draws attention to the pivotal role of the guardian angel Clarence, who does not magically fix George Bailey’s problems but instead offers him the chance to reconsider his life’s events, enabling three crucial insights: gratitude, purpose and connection.​

Sergeant, a specialist in popular media and the author of Encountering the Impossible: The Fantastic in Hollywood Fantasy Cinema (SUNY Press, 2021), positions the film as relevant far beyond the holiday season, noting that in a society where suicide remains the leading preventable cause of death among men under 50 and loneliness has been identified by the WHO as a global health crisis, cinema with this kind of depth has the potential to be life-saving.

Read the full article at: https://theconversation.com/a-wonderful-life-is-not-a-feel-good-christmas-film-but-it-is-incredibly-therapeutic-271806

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