The premise of "Defending Your Life" seems less outlandish in the era of Youtube and Facebook. These days it's easy to pass judgment on someone you barely know. Simply friend them on facebook, sift through their profile for embarrassing pictures and comments, do your standard google search and voila! Instant judgment!
The film presages this in a way. Albert Brooks plays an advertiser executive, who's run over by a bus and finds himself in a sort of benign purgatory - Judgment City - where he gets to wear a toga, gorge on whatever food he wants without gaining weight and even see who he was in his past lives at an Epcot Center exhibit hall.
The catch is that during the day his life is on trial. If he can prove he lived his life to its fullest and never succumbed to fear in making his major life decisions, he can move onward. Losing the case means he's a work-in-progress and must return to Earth to live another life.
The humor of the movie prosecutor conjures pivotal moments from his life
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