CITY OF ANGELS
"City of Angels" just might be the most romantic movie released so far this year. That doesn’t necessarily make it one of the best. It’s not. It just means there’s a drought on romantic movies. "Titanic" doesn’t count. That was a disaster film and a love story; and it was released in ’97. I’m tempted to say that " City of Angels" is a disastrous love story, but the performances, if nothing else, are in the movie’s favor. "City of Angels" is a star driven film.
Meg Ryan is dazzling as Dr. Maggie Rice, a gifted surgeon who seems most alive when she is helping to preserve life. She finds herself in need of spiritual salve when her healing skills fail to save a patient during an operation. She is full of self doubt, but never self pity. Her vulnerability is enough to attract any self respecting angel, like Seth, played by Nicholas Cage. He has spent a good part of his existence wondering what it’s like to be human. Maggie seems to embody all the qualities he admires in people. The range of her feelings draws him to her, and her beauty is irresistible. Seth falls in love with her. Dennis Franz is a delight as Nathan Messinger, the patient who turns out to be an ex-angel, who instructs Seth on how to ‘fall’. That’s angel talk for becoming human. After a lifetime, Nate still loves his wife and exalts in the fruits of his humanity, his kids and his grandchildren. Seth yearns to be human. Maggie gives him a reason to ‘fall’.
Nicholas Cage has the thankless task of having to rely on a one note performance that is central to playing an angel. Yet, he has to project a sense of curiosity about the sensual experiences he can only read about, or see played out in the mortal world. For the first half of "City of Angels", I kept thinking about Cage’s Oscar acceptance speech for his part in "Leaving Las Vegas". He credited the birth of his son for giving him a whole new range of emotions to use as an actor. I was dying to see Cage break out of his monochromatic portrayal into a rainbow of expression. When Seth takes the plunge, Cage gives it his all! He delights in every physical sensation with the enthusiasm of a newborn. On the lighter side, Seth also has to cope with a gang of toughs, LA’s public transportation system and the elements.
"City of Angels" uses the basic premise of the hypnotic masterpiece "Wings of Desire" as a starting point. Angels are all around, eavesdropping on people’s thoughts, never interfering in the affairs of mortal men, but occasionally making their presence felt. They fall in love and can become human. "Wings of Desire" relies on black and white photography as an artistic tool to show the world as angels see it. "City of Angels" does not. It is, after all, a Hollywood love story. It depends on pretty pictures to sustain its mood. So much so, that director, Brad Silberberg feasts the eyes with picturesque Pacific Coast sunsets that seem to have no purpose other than to wow the audience. He litters the beach with angels who stare at the sky, yet they supposedly don’t experience color. Later, we find out why they are there, but the point is made moot by an attempt to be clever. What they are supposed to be doing can be done anywhere because they are angels.
The movie’s other failings, like the ones mentioned, are a series of missed opportunities. Seth’s obsession with Hemingway prompts Maggie to recreate the a sensual eating scene as described in "A Moveable Feast." The Hemingway connection could have been carried a step further with Seth trying to imagine how many ways he and Maggie could make the earth move like the lovers in "For Whom the Bell Tolls". It would have added humor and a much needed poetic dimension to the obligatory love scene.
At the end of "City of Angels", I noticed that Wim Wenders, the director of "Wings of Desire" got a screenplay credit. I’m curious to know why his co-writer, Peter Handke, did not.