City of Angels

First, this important preface: I love Wings of Desire, Wim Wenders' lyrical 1988 tale of angels fascinated with the human experience. So, I dreaded the impending arrival of an Americanized re-make. Perhaps because I expected so little, I was improbably delighted by City of Angels, which shifts the focus of the story to a romance between an angel named Seth (Nicolas Cage) and Maggie (Meg Ryan), the troubled surgeon he observes. Cage and Ryan make a superb romantic pair, with Cage bringing a percolating intensity to his early scenes of preternatural calm, anticipating his possible "fall" to humanity. It's a bit harder to get a handle on what Maggie wants from her relationship with Seth, and harder still to care a whit about the obviously superficial relationship she is in when we first meet her. Quibbles vanish, however, when the principals share the screen. Director Brad Silberling adopts an uncommon reflective pace, fashioning an old-style Hollywood multi-hanky weeper light years removed from the dream-like Wings of Desire. It's almost enough to make you forget that Angels is based on Wings...which, for my money, is the best thing that could have happened. Recommended. (S. Renshaw)