City of Angels Review
by "Andy Wright" (louk AT seanet DOT com)April 17th, 1998
CITY OF ANGELS
Grade: B (Worth a look)
Directed by Brad Silberling
Written for the screen by Dana Stevens
Starring Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, Dennis Franz
Year of Release: 1998
Rating: PG-13
Capsule Review:
A Memo to Hollywood; if you must persist in cranking out big-budget retreads of classic foreign films, then this is the way to do it - as a subtle and intelligent reimagining of the source material (in this case Wim Wenders’ ethereally lovely 1987 Wings of Desire) rather than a slavish frame-by-frame duplication. It’s hard to believe that Nicolas Cage hasn’t used up all of his different facets as an actor by now, but he delivers another inspired performance here, comparable in its fumbling otherness to Jeff Bridges’ sublime work in Starman, as an Angel who falls in love with Meg Ryan. The plot does come awfully close at times to shifting into Touched by an Angel style hokum (the spirits interact with humanity much more here than in the original film), but director Brad Silberling, displaying a talent that was difficult to spot amid all the ILM effects of his debut Casper, does a superb job of keeping the narrative grounded. (He also makes his L.A. locations look almost as gorgeously fresh and new as Wenders’ Berlin.) On its own terms, City of Angels is an unusually resonant romantic drama; as a remake that doesn’t insult the original, it’s borderline miraculous.
Copyright 1998 by The Critic formerly known as Andrew Wright
For more insanely biased reviews, check out http://www.seanet.com/~louk/ e-mail [email protected]
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