A Wonderful Life is a maltheist parable.
How so?
Heaven shows that it gives little to no shits about George's life, and arguably waits until the last moment to intervene. And when they do intervene, they send a sub-par angel who has all the intelligence of a jackrabbit huffing paint. Hell, one of the larger Angels in the intro even notes that George is
scheduled to commit suicide at 10:45 as if this was all some sort of cosmic plan to drive Bailey to want to off himself.
The pharmacist nearly poisoning that sick child because his son died of a horrifying epidemic? All part of the plan.
Harry nearly drowning? All part of the plan.
Doing whatever to Potter to make him so goddamn evil and a poor student of the human creature? All part of the plan.
Mary giving away her
honeymoon money?
All part of the plan.Because of the capriciousness of the powers that be, George is doomed to obscurity for the sake of others because
God says so. And if he was never born, they decide to dick everybody over anyway for shits and giggles in a even worse way.
Because Bailey has the gall to want to have self-agency, he is punished by the gods for his folly by sending him to the nearest brink of destruction and sending a terrible messenger to force him into living to correct their mistakes.