City of Angels Review
by Curtis Edmonds (blueduck AT hsbr DOT org)May 7th, 1998
by Curtis Edmonds -- [email protected]
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.
Well, it could be that the review format just can't handle all the emotion I feel about City of Angels. This movie is too big for a standard review, too majestic for the limits of this column. 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.
One of the many things that makes this movie so special is its treatment of angels. The movie is chock-full of angels, who appear wearing their long black trench coats (in Los Angeles?!?), watching the world from their perches on tall buildings, reading over people's shoulders at the library, hanging around the beach at sunset, silently reassuring skittish air traffic controllers, comforting the dying. But instead of introducing us to Seth standing atop one of the massive Los Angeles skyscrapers, City of Angels opens at a very human level. A mother takes care of her sick daughter, unaware that Seth lurks invisibly, waiting to take the child home. It's a touching and wrenching moment, amplified by Cage's soulful expression -- and it allows us to see the angels as more than just icons or symbols of something else. We feel Seth's pain, even as he is not able to himself -- and we feel it because of Cage's wonderful acting job.
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 that it's hard to believe that this is the same guy who said, "Put the bunny down!" in Con Air. As an angel, Cage is pensive and somewhat lacking in effect, but his rare smiles light up the screen. And as he falls to earth and becomes human, the contrast between his previous reserved demeanor and his joyful exuberance at being able to feel is intoxicating.
Ryan has a much less showy part, but is equally as effective. Her opening scene is similar to Seth's: after a surgery scene straight out of ER, she has to comfort the family but isn't able to do it. Unfortunately, she's not given much opportunity to stretch her acting muscles -- it's as if she's spending the whole movie reacting instead of acting. Nonetheless, she's got amazing chemistry with Cage, and there's an image where golden light floods the hospital's dank locker room that deserves to be put on a stained-glass window. Ryan's main task is to convince Seth of the charms of being human, and she succeeds
marvelously.
I haven't told you everything about this movie, and I'm afraid that I can't. I haven't even mentioned the stellar supporting work from Andre Braugher and Dennis Frantz. I haven't mentioned a thing about the great work of the director and cinematographer. This is a stellar movie, worthy of much higher praise and analysis than I feel capable of, and I encourage you to experience City of Angels for yourself.
Rating: A+
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Curtis Edmonds
[email protected]
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