City of Angels . The Boston Phoenix . 04-20-98

City of Angels

DIRECTED BY: Brad Silberling

REVIEWED: 04-20-98

Brad Silberling's film is not so much a remake of Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire as it is a tribute. In both films a guardian angel falls in love with a woman and decides to become human so he can be with her. That's where the similarity ends. Wenders's 1987 classic is dark, heavy, and poetic; Silberling's is light, funny, more Hollywood. But City of Angels recaptures the beauty at the heart of the original and has some powerful images of its own, including a scene where all the angels -- dressed in black -- gather on the beach to watch the sunset.

Nicolas Cage discovers his sensitive, innocent, gentle side as the angel Seth. As Maggie Rice, a heart surgeon who listens to Hendrix in the operating room, Meg Ryan plays the object of Seth's desire with typical Meg Ryan charm and little else. And as friend-to-all Nathaniel Mestenger, Dennis Franz brings a jolly charm to this semi-artsy date flick.

--Jumana Farouky

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Film Vault Suggested Links
Sliding Doors
Twelve Monkeys
Bicentennial Man

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