It's a Wonderful Life election. The angel shows him Bedford Falls as it would have been not if he had never been born, but as it would have been if he had gone into business instead of politics. Seneca Falls, New York, claims that when Frank Capra visited their town in 1945, he was inspired to model Bedford Falls after it. The town has an annual "It's a Wonderful Life Festival" in December. In mid-2009, The Hotel Clarence opened in Seneca Falls, named for George Bailey's guardian angel. On December 10, 2010, the "It's a Wonderful Life" Museum opened in Seneca Falls, with Karolyn
It's a Wonderful Life "to combat a modern trend toward atheism". It ranked 283rd among critics, and 107th among directors, in the 2012 "Sight & Sound" polls of the greatest films ever made. The film's positive reception has continued into the present. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 71 reviews, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The holiday classic to define all holiday classics, "It's a Wonderful Life" is one of a handful of films worth an annual viewing." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film