Review: City of Angels
What would happen if an angel fell in love with one of us? Would he shuffle off his immortal coil and let himself fall into earth? Or would he love from afar and wait until his love joined him in heaven? That is the premise of City of Angels, a pleasant if ultimately unsatisfying love story.
Nicolas Cage stars as Seth, one of the many angels that roam Los Angeles, the "City of Angels." As an angel, it is his duty to listen to people's thoughts and comfort those in need. He cannot, however, interfere with their fates.
Enter Dr. Maggie Rice (well-played by Meg Ryan), a heart surgeon badly unsettled by a patient's death on her operating table. Seth, who is there to help the patient go gently into that good night, is instantly smitten with Maggie. He appears to her in human form and Maggie soon finds herself entranced and disturbed by this gentle man with no past. Seth, deeply overwhelmed with her and his entrance into the human world, considers trading his immortality for an actual human life.
Television powerhouses Andre Braugher (Homicide) and Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue) provide able support. Braugher portrays Cage's celestial sidekick while Franz portrays Nathan Messenger, a self-described "glutton, hedonist, former celestial body, and recent addition to the human race." A quibble: why cast Andre Braugher, one of the most electrifying actors working today, if you're going to underuse him? Franz, at least, has something to play with. His robust performance as the Rabelaisian Nathan Messenger is both inspiring and poignant. There is an especially moving moment when he joins the angels' ritualistic beach gathering. As the sun rises, he is saddened at being no longer able to hear the music in the sunrise.
The film does not lack for beautiful images: angels walking on rooftops, gathering at beaches, sitting atop the Hollywood sign, two figures swimming within a wave. Nor does it lack for stirring scenes: a cacophony of thoughts climaxing into a harmonious buzz of whispers is particularly noteworthy. Scenes between Cage and Ryan vibrate with sensuality and a bittersweet longing.
The film, however, is laden with predictability. Why make the character of Maggie Rice a doctor for the sole purpose of injecting a religion vs. science conversation between Maggie and Seth? If the conversation had been a multi-layered one instead of a cursory conversational distraction, then perhaps it would have enhanced the story and the romance instead of deadening it.
City of Angels would have also benefited from tighter editing. Subplots involving Maggie's relationships with a fellow doctor and a newborn baby are unnecessary. Their purposes are understandable but they're flab. The last ten minutes, in particular, could have been excised without incident (although I am sure many will disagree).
Cage and Ryan are great romantic pair but, if the romance transcends its pedestrian nature, it is solely due to Cage. I always felt he received short shrift for his performance in Face/Off. John Travolta's flashy, Cheshire-cat grin of a portrayal seemed to receive the majority of the praise. Cage, however, was superbly haunted. It wasn't that he was conveying a hauntedness, he was embodying it. As Seth, Cage is evidence that eyes are the windows to the soul. He possesses a silent screen star's ability to convey so much with so little, to act with the eyes and little else, to express feeling without articulating it.
The character of Seth, or of any of the angels in the film, is not an easy task to perform. Despite the gravity of their responsibilities, the angels retain their childlike innocence because they do not interact with humans. In essence, the angel is a child. As such, Cage reacts to everything like a child: watch his expression as he realizes he's hurt Maggie after he fails to feel the beauty of their first kiss -- the awareness that he's hurt because of something his nature prevents him doing is absolutely tear-inducing. Cage soaringly sustains this childlike sense of wonder at every new discovery: a pear, a poem, hot water, the sight of his blood, love. And hurt. He completes a story and a romance that both fail to complete themselves.
City of Angels
Directed by: Brad Silberling
Written by: Dana Stevens; based on the screenplay for Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders, Peter Handke, Richard Reitinger
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, Andre Braugher, Dennis Franz, Colm Feore
