# Angel Eyes (2001)

### reviewed by
Robin Clifford

    "Angel Eyes"

A mysterious man (Jim Caviezel) appears, like a guardian angel, and saves police officer Sharon Pogue (Jennifer Lopez), from a deadly ambush. Is it coincidence or fate? The two shall learn the truth about themselves and each other as they fall in love in "Angel Eyes."

"Angel Eyes" is, first and foremost, a date flick. It has the trappings of an action-drama, initially, with Lopez saving a car crash victim, then, later, getting in a shootout with a fleeing felon. But, once the setup is made - troubled cop, Sharon, meets mysterious drifter, Catch (Caviezel) - the cop drama falls away and real story, the love story about two troubled people adrift and alone who find each other, kicks in.

When Catch (Caviezel) comes on the scene, we find a tortured and confused man who is, at his core, a good Samaritan. When he first sees Sharon, he recognizes her, but it's left vague as to how and when. (But, if you paid attention to the action under the credits at the beginning, you'll guess who Catch is.) All we really know about the stranger is that he is drawn to drawn to Sharon like a magnet to iron.

Sharon has her own set of hang-ups to deal with, too. She is overly aggressive at her job - so much so that her partner, Robbie (Terrence Howard), repeatedly admonishes her to lighten up. Her sudden rescue by Catch, just when she is about to be capped by a hoodlum with her own gun, begins a slow-burning romance that increases in heat as each of the two discard their outer shells - hers of tough anger, his of benign confusion. As they fall for each other, they both unlock hidden, painful pasts. The release each experiences, because of their love for each other, allows both to resolve past problems and learn to love each other unconditionally.

The routine story about two troubled people finding and nurturing each other is helped by decent, though not great perfs by Lopez and Caviezel. I have never been a big fan of Jennifer Lopez (though I really liked her opposite George Clooney in Stephen Soderberg's "Out of Sight"), but found her angry cop character to have dimension. Caviezel, with those piercing, expressive eyes and handsome looks, fits the bill as the mysterious Catch. The actor has to get some roles that give him more to do than look tortured and pensive. I'd like to see the guy get a chance to thesp once in a while, instead of just expressing for the camera.

There is little going on below the performances of the two stars. Acclaimed Brazilian actress Sonia Braga ("The Kiss of the Spider Woman") appears as Sharon's mother, whose abuse by her husband (Victor Argo) years before led to the father/daughter estrangement that has lasted for years. Vet actress Shirley Knight has a small, sensitive role as Catch's caring, former mother-in-law.

Scripter Gerald DiPego joins, again, with helmer Mandoki (they last collaborated on the saccharine "Message in a Bottle") in bringing another romance to the screen. Fortunately, their second time together is better than their first. Lenser Piotr Sobocinski shifts between dark and brooding lighting, when things are serious, to warm and soft as the romance traverses the film story.

"Angel Eyes" will find its audience in the post-teen dating scene. The angst of the characters and their release from despair won't get the action fans, but it will get the romantics. I give it a C+.

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