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CITY OF ANGELS
In 1988, director Wim Wenders gave us WINGS OF DESIRE, a film in French and German. Based on that film, Brad Silberling has made his own English version. When that happens, the newer attempt is almost always a disaster BUT in this case, despite the original being excellent, the current film is a bit superior. For one thing, it comes across as more understandable than the subtitled one.
It is the story, a romantic fantasy, of a fine surgeon, Dr. Maggie Rice (Meg Ryan) who oddly and despite herself, falls in love with Seth (Nicolas Cage) an angel who makes his presence known to her. Angels are normally invisible. In this film there are many angels in the city, their job being to help those in need. So when Dr. Rice inexplicably loses a patient and is very despondent about the loss Seth decides to show himself to her and comfort her.
Seth learns there are many things he does not know about real humans, that there is much he has never experienced.
Why would a down-to Earth woman surgeon allow herself to fall in love with a non-human, an angel? What must the angel give up to experience that of which he has never before been aware? For one thing, his immortality. Not exactly an easy choice.
A patient, Nathaniel Messinger, (Dennis Franz) lying ill in a hospital bed reveals that he once was an angel. Now he is happily married and the father of two. From the first time arriving on Earth as an angel, Messinger felt at once that there was more of life to be savored. Would the same hold true for Seth? I liked Franz's performance very much; he is a consummate actor.
Unlike Messinger, the angel, Cassiel (Andre Braugher), has the role of an angel who is satisfied with his lot. He is not one to give up his immortality to become a human. Nevertheless, he cannot help but wonder about what it must be like to be in love.
The film, then, is about love and its power to sway even angels . . . or at the very least make them restless pondering the pros and cons of giving up their endless life and become mere mortals . . . and for what?
Very solid performances by both Cage and Ryan and, in fact, by all in the cast, make the film most entertaining and thought-provoking. Highly recommended.
Directed by Brad Silberling.
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Copyright 1998 Ben Hoffman
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