MICHAEL
A film review by Walter Frith
Copyright 1997 Walter Frith
One thing or another kept me from seeing 'Michael' around the hoidays and after finally getting around to see it I was pleasantly surprised. I expected it to be just another picture about and angel doing good deeds for the sake of his eternal home but this is an offbeat picture which dwells on the characters that matter and has a touching and good natured feeling. A group of tabloid newspaper employees from Chicago (William Hurt, Andie MacDowell and Roberet Pastorelli) travel to small town Iowa with the paper's mascot, a little dog named Sparky and investigate the claim by a kindly elderly woman (Jean Stapleton --- yes, 'Edith Bunker') of an angel living with her. She tells the newspaper that her prayers were answered when she asked for help and that Michael is her saviour. At first the reporters are humourously skeptical and doubt the claim is true but....well, without giving away too much of the movie my plot description stops here. As for the analysis, John Travolta has made a wise choice in his career which continues to grow and Travolta is remaining diverse since his comeback role in 'Pulp Fiction' from 1994 and he has an amazing amount of droll charisma which women find sexy and men find appealing. 'Michael' has all the makings for a sensitive and moving holiday picture which plays amazingly well whenever you view it. There's a strange message of destiny in Travolta's character as the movie's purpose is revealed in the end to a magical and heartfelt conclusion. Director Nora Ephron ('Sleepless in Seattle') uses a sure footed approach to the material she co-wrote and blends it with tenderness and personality. Micheal isn't a great film but it never set out to be and is a picture that knows it limits and deserves praise for that alone.
OUT OF 5> * * * 1/2
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews