# City of Angels (1998)

### reviewed by
Scott Renshaw

CITY OF ANGELS (Warner Bros.) Starring: Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, Dennis Franz, Andre Braugher. Screenplay: Dana Stevens, based on WINGS OF DESIRE by Wim Wenders. Producers: Dawn Steel, Charles Roven. Director: Brad Silberling. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, sexual situations, adult themes) Running Time: 113 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.

First, this important preface: I love WINGS OF DESIRE. Wim Wenders' lyrical 1988 film, positing angels roaming through Berlin and one particular angel fascinated with the human experience, caught me completely by surprise when I first saw it. It was less a narrative than a visual tone poem of division -- between heaven and earth, between monochrome and color, between East and West Berlin -- which eventually finds unity. The experience, terribly un-critic-like though it may sound, was spiritually moving. That emotional response contributed significantly to me distaste for Wenders' own ill-fated attempt at a sequel, FARAWAY, SO CLOSE!; it similarly led me to dread the impending arrival of the Americanized re-make CITY OF ANGELS. Why re-make perfection, especially to engage in the typical Hollywood reductionism of making it all about the love story between the curious angel and his human object of desire?

Perhaps it is because I expected so little that I was so improbably delighted by CITY OF ANGELS. ANGELS does indeed move the love story to the forefront, following an angel named Seth (Nicolas Cage) on his observational wanderings through contemporary Los Angeles until he meets and falls in love with troubled surgeon Maggie Rice (Meg Ryan). Though the decision to play up that relationship was certainly a practical one -- WINGS OF DESIRE's stream-of-consciousness eavesdropping hardly screams "commercial" -- it also gives CITY OF ANGELS its unique identity. Certain specific elements remain from the original, including the library milieu and a former angel (Peter Falk in the original, Dennis Franz here) who acts as the angel's human guide, but screenwriter Dana Stevens and director Brad Silberling choose to re-imagine the story from a different perspective rather than re-make it. The result is sort of a strange cousin to ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD -- a story based on existing characters and situations, yet thematically independent and appealing in its own right.

Much of that appeal springs from CITY OF ANGELS' commitment to its tone. Few mainstream Hollywood movies of recent years have been so willing to adopt a reflective pace, to paint broad canvases of human experience and allow us to watch in peace. Cinematographer John Seale (THE ENGLISH PATIENT) gives Los Angeles a serene, otherworldly glow, while composer Gabriel Yared (also of THE ENGLISH PATIENT) lays an underscore of hypnotic strings. While never earth-shaking, Silberling's compositions are rarely predictable and frequently memorable. It's that rare big-screen movie that uses the big screen, allowing its intimate story to unfold in the grandeur of a massive city.

Ultimately, it's that intimate story which will win over viewers. Cage and Ryan make a superb romantic pair, each actor reaching for the longing in their respective characters and connecting that longing to the other. Though Cage may not be the most obvious choice for a role based on preternatural calm, the intensity percolating beneath his benevolent glances heightens the anticipation of his possible "fall" to humanity. It's a bit harder to get a handle on what Maggie wants from her relationship with Seth, and harder still to care a whit about the obviously superficial relationshp she is in when we first meet her. Few quibbles about the characters matter, however, when they share the screen; the sheer force of their eye contact is often enough to wipe away any doubts about their feelings. A story about life-changing emotion is a hard sell to cynical audiences, but Cage and Ryan sell it.

For all its meaphysical musings, there's never any question that CITY OF ANGELS is an old-style Hollywood love story, a multi-hanky weeper light years removed from the dream-like WINGS OF DESIRE. It's almost enough to make you forget that ANGELS is based on WINGS...which, for my money, is the best thing that possibly could have happened.

         On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 lost angels:  8.

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