"GEORGE BAILEY, I'll love you 'til the day I die..."
The words spoken by a young American schoolgirl called Mary Hatch to her 12-year-old unrequited love - who is totally unaware of what she has told him as she has whispered it in his deaf left ear - starts the tear ducts welling up and I know I will be crying buckets by the time the movie ends.
The fact that this beautifully-touching moment arrives barely 10 minutes into the film tells you all you need to know - It's A Wonderful Life is arguably the most tear-inducing and life-affirming movie you will ever see. Ever.
For those yet to experience this picture - and I do know many of my good pals have not - I urge every single one of you to try and see it, ideally between now and Twelfth Night.
It's a brilliant movie that works on so many levels with scenes of humour, romance, tragedy and darkness, the last 20 minutes or so utterly terrifying before the most magical of endings you could ever wish for in a film.
In a nutshell, the 1946 movie, directed by legendary filmmaker Frank Capra, focuses on the life of a late 30-something married father-of-four, George Bailey.
George (memorably portrayed by Hollywood great James Stewart) has been a pillar of the small town where he has lived - Bedford Falls - throughout his life. In that time, he has made countless personal sacrifices to help the poorest townsfolk in Bedford Falls live better lives through a Buildings & Loan company created by his late father.
George's sacrifices include his number one aim to travel the world. Instead, he has remained stuck in Bedford Falls, going on to marry Mary, now grown up (played effortlessly by Donna Reed) and having four children.
One snowy, Christmas Eve, through a set of accidental circumstances, the Buildings & Loan firm finds itself $8000 in arrears and a warrant is issued for George's arrest.
With trouble at every turn, George storms out of the family home and after a brawl in a local bar, contemplates taking his own life knowing an insurance policy he has would cover all the financial worries should he die.
It's at this stage in the film where fate takes a hand in the form of George's guardian angel, a certain Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers). Clarence, an angel yet to earn his wings, devises a way to explain to George why it was so wrong to think about ending it all - by showing him how different his little world of Bedford Falls would have been if he had never been born.
And it's those scenes that are quite heart-breaking to witness - we learn so many things how George's mere presence affected so many other people's lives from saving his younger brother Harry's life when he was a young child to marrying Mary to having his four beautiful children.
By the final five minutes of the movie I am a complete emotional wreck. The tears are streaming down my face, and at the end I think about everything in my life - the good and the not-so-good - and always think to myself, yes, things aren't always rosy in my garden, but, you know, I really wouldn't have it any other way and I am so thankful for the life I am living right now.
So try and catch the film if you can - maybe it'll be your first introduction. If it is, I guarantee it will be on your 'must watch at Christmas list' for evermore. It certainly is with me.
