city of angels
Loosely based on Wim Winders' enchanting tale Wings of Desire, Brad Silberling's City of Angels is a superlatively crafted romantic drama that solidly stands on its own merits. Like the German film, new pic offers a haunting yet lyrical meditation on such universal issues as spirit versus matter, human courage, and the true meaning of love and desire. The endlessly resourceful Nicolas Cage, as a celestial angel, and a terrifically engaging Meg Ryan, as a pragmatic, surgeon enjoy such a blissful chemistry that they elevate the drama to a poetic level seldom reached in a mainstream movie. Major stars--and an exceedingly handsome production--should help position the film as a major spring release, but Warners still faces a challenge in marketing a stylish movie with undeniable philosophical overtones that deviates substantially from Hollywood's more conventional romantic fare.
A rarity, City of Angels is a big-budget, star-studded studio movie that approximates European art films not only in its thematic concerns but also in tone, style and design.
Seth the angel (Nicholas Cage) and Maggie the surgeon (Meg Ryan) are discussing tears. Seth, who has never cried or wiped away a tear, wants to know why people cry. Maggie tries to explain it in medical terms: the tear ducts overact for some reason, nobody knows why. Seth knows the real reason and says so — there’s too much emotion, and the body just can’t handle it and weeps.
In a Hollywood that celebrates action and explosion and glamor, this is a movie that’s not afraid to embrace the important issues of love, faith, loss and devotion that we face everyday. It is, superficially, about the romance between the angel and the surgeon, but it reaches out past the barriers of the love story to awaken the hearts and spirits of the audience.
But ultimately, what gives the movie its special grace is the exquisite, nuanced acting of Cage, as the rebel, Pinnochio-like angel who wants to be a real boy. Drawing on expressive movements and slightly stylized gestures, he gives one of his most low-key and lyrical performances. Casting aside her customary "cute" look, Ryan also excels as a down-to-earth surgeon, whose entire set of beliefs is shaken by her encounter with Seth. Impressive supporting work also comes from TV's two tough cops, Messinger (NYPD Blues), as a free spirit who fully embraces life's pleasures, and Braugher (Homicide), as the more serenely content angel.
And if Cage is wonderful, Cage and Ryan together are electric. Their early scenes are almost heartstopping — actually heartstopping at first, as their eyes meet over an operating room table after a heart surgery gone awry. The scenes where Seth is invisibly comforting Maggie are silently eloquent, and when they finally talk, Cage speaks with such understated passion and sincerity
Whether intended or not, City of Angels plays like a valentine to L.A., romanticizing the city in a manner not seen since Steve Martin's 1991 starrer, L.A. Story.
for true lovers its a must see one!!