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CITY OF ANGELS

1/2
Dominic Ow
Directed by: Brad Silberling
Produced by: Atlas Entertainment/ Regency Pictures
Written by: Wim Wenders & Peter Handke (screenplay Der Himmel ueber Berlin), Dana Stevens
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, Andre Braugher, Dennis Franz, Colm Feore, Robin Bartlett.
Runtime: Approx. 114 minutes
Rating: * * 1/2 out of * * * * *

Where Hollywood Fears to Tread

Okay, so here we are, sharpening our knives, thumbing the bullets into the magazines, ready to unleash a fury of critical displeasure at Hollywood for doing to Wim Wenders' WINGS OF DESIRE what POINT OF RETURN did to LA FEMME NIKITA. How could they, those studio pricks. They just....just ripped it off!

Or did they? Really.

[ CITY OF ANGELS Photo ] Hollywood fears the art film - the equivocality of poetry, the indirectness of subtlety. Art to Hollywood is Kate Winslet's handprint on a steamed-up window of a vintage car.

Truth is, CITY OF ANGELS isn't trying to be WINGS OF DESIRE, it doesn't want to be. Sure it borrows many ideas, even sequences from the latter. But do you think Hollywood is dumb enough to sink a fortune into re-making a film that is quite frankly unwatchable to the plebian INDEPENDENCE DAY horde? Hollywood fears the art film - the equivocality of poetry, the indirectness of subtlety. Art to Hollywood is Kate Winslet's handprint on a steamed-up window of a vintage car.

Truth is, all CITY OF ANGELS wants to be, is a simple love story. Pity then that it tries to make tentative, indecisive steps towards articulating larger themes, because what could have turned out to be an effective romance is now burdened by the dead-weight of poorly-elucidated issues.

The love-story is straightforward. An angel, Seth (Nicholas Cage) falls in love with a mortal doctor, Maggie (Meg Ryan) and is willing to give up all the priveleges of his angel membership to be with her. Mermaid who falls in love with sailor and has to leave her fishy world to be with her lover. Same tale.

[ CITY OF ANGELS Photo ] To make such a love story engaging, all you have to do is to show that it is a martyr-like sacrifice to leave the former world behind. Director Brad Silberling (CASPER) and writer, Dana Stevens (BLINK) barely succeed in convincing us that the Angel is about to take a mean plunge. One of the plus points of being one of the Surreal MIB, they try to show, is being able to listen to Godly music. If you ask me, the scenes where they congregated on a Californian Beach at sunrise and sunset to tune into the Heavenly Top 40 looked more like they were playing extras on a bad R&B music video. Besides, what's so hard about being human if we see an angel who's done it and loves every minute of it?

Fortunately for the filmmakers, the lead performers do a credible job in giving an angst-less script some angst. Cage gives his vintage I-am-a-guy-so-f**k-me look (though it's arguable whether he's miscast since he doesn't really need that look here), and Ryan has the vulnerable thirty-something woman character all down pat. Fortunately too, cinematographer, John Seale (THE ENGLISH PATIENT) adds light, angelic, sweeping camera movements that lend a lyrical quality to a script that is so lacking in depth.

Never mind that the love story is somewhat lacking in intensity, CITY OF ANGELS tries to work in questions of fate: Maggie laments, "If I'm fighting for someone's life, who is it that I am fighting against?" Maybe it's me, but I always thought that was just a figure of speech. Then it tries on regret for size. Without giving too much away, I'll say that the film tries to suggest that life must be led without regrets, since it's great to be human no matter what, with all our sensory nerve-endings, you know, touchy-feely unlike angels. I don't know how the film could ever come to such a bogus conclusion since all Seth was motivated by to become human was a rather lustful love-chase.

Hollywood really should have heeded its fears and stuck to steamy hand-prints. It is good at the visceral, the in-your-face melodrama and well-timed Enya music. If it must attempt more, at least do a POINT OF NO RETURN - make as exact a copy as you can.

The Flying Inkpot's Rating System

* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Tonight With Gurmit.
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.

 

 

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Readers' Comments

From: Jaya (jharm@yahoomail.com)

How in the world can "City of Angels" even get a 2 1/2 star rating? I thought "Great Expectations" was bad until I caught this crap of a movie. After the first 15 minutes, I was already finding a comfortable position in my seat to fall asleep. The storyline is as contrived as it can ever get and the lines are crappy beyond words; "It tastes like what a pear tastes"..."No, tell me how it tastes to you" YUCK! What more can i say about a movie where angels spend all their time at the library peering over other people, arrive at the beach to listen to music every morning and evening and sit high on top of buildings all day? What you can learn from this movie: 1. What you have is good. Don't aim for anything else. 2. Don't ride your bicycle with your eyes closed(duh!) 3. If you are an angel and decide to become a human but unfortunately your loved one dies, face up to it by buying pears with a passion!(Don't tell me you didn't laugh at this scene)!
From: weiwen (weiboon@pacific.net.sg)

I don't quite see anything nice about this movie at all. The origin or mission of the "Men in Black" was not made clear. What is the reason behind eavesdropping in the library? Why AT the library? Why do they all behave so robotic? Were they alive before (and went to heaven)? If so, why have they forgotten how its like to be a mortal? The story just got vaguer and vaguer towards the end when the lead actress died. "I would rather have a minute with her" sounded so fake and insincere. And, I still don't see the point (in the storyline) of swimming nude in the waves at the sunset spot. What a culture.
From: Teo Ee Ming (cybergel@cyberway.com.sg)

Tsk, tsk, you people are so alike. Why can't you just take the time to see Wim Wender's Wings of Desire? This Hollywood duplicate is fairly decent,(I wouldn't call it excellent, though) You know it's a love story, then why bother critisizing it like you're expecting a shoot-em-up actioner? Not every Nicholas Cage movie is an actioner. Do you know where Cage made his mark as an actor? In dramas, in fact he won an Oscar in a cheap independent drama. Unless of course you "action" boys acquitted with him through "The Rock". And I suppose you're all familiar with B-action movie actors like Oliver Gruner and Lorenzo Lama. Typical 3rd world country bumpkins.
From: Top Dog (FoloingHim@aol.com / Thursday, February 25, 1999 at 11:18:20)

What I think about this movie that it is one of the best and I hope that they come out with another one like it. And the sound track it is the bomb when it comes on 101.9 then I crank it up and rock to it.
From: Rhonda (Penguinette@webtv.net / Tuesday, May 18, 1999 at 10:45:36)

I loved "City Of Angels", It is one of my all time favorites.