Luc Besson returns to his roots in this delightful, funny and stylish fantasy. Shot in gloriously crisp black and white, it's also a bit of a throwback to the French New Wave for its technique and dazzling location vignettes across Paris.
Angel-A (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:84
Fresh:37
Rotten:47
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: The clunky dialogue and shallow characters fail to capitalize upon Angel-A's stunning, poetic cinematography.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language and some sexual content.
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release:May 25, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $39,234
Synopsis: ANGEL-A follows self-described liar and shady businessman Andre (Jamel Debbouze), who is down on his luck and owes Parisian gangsters money. In a desperate and weak state, Andre finds himself on... ANGEL-A follows self-described liar and shady businessman Andre (Jamel Debbouze), who is down on his luck and owes Parisian gangsters money. In a desperate and weak state, Andre finds himself on the edge of one of the City of Light's majestic bridges, ready to plunge into the river below. After one last look around him, he catches sight of a statuesque blonde woman, tears streaking down her gorgeous face, also standing on the ledge just a few feet away. She makes Andre forget about his problems for a moment, and he pleads with her not to jump. She does anyway, and he goes in after her, dragging her to safety. The damsel-in-distress, Angela (Rie Rasmussen), insists on hanging around Andre, doing whatever he tells her, as a way to pay him back for saving her life. Finding it hard to say no to her, and resisting her mesmerizing beauty, he recruits her, somewhat begrudgingly, to help him figure out how to settle his debts. What Andre soon discovers is that meeting Angela was no accident, and that they both need saving, not just from death, but also from themselves. ANGEL-A boasts entertaining performances by Debbouze as the scrappy and quick-tempered Andre and Rasmussen as the optimistic and unassumingly wise and playful Angela. The unlikely pair sparkle onscreen together. ANGEL-A is beautifully filmed, with the black-and-white cinematography capturing all that is engaging and romantic about Paris. [More]
Starring: Jamel Debbouze, Rie Rasmussen, Gilbert Melki, Kate Nauta
Starring: Jamel Debbouze, Rie Rasmussen, Gilbert Melki, Kate Nauta, Serge Riaboukine
Director: Luc Besson
Director: Luc Besson
Screenwriter: Luc Besson
Producer: Luc Besson
Composer: Anja Garbarek
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
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Reviews for Angel-A
The sleek style and sassy attitude gets mired in a vague, soft-headed psychology of self-affirmation and daytime talk-show platitudes as the angel turns every encounter into a lesson in self-esteem and character building.
You desperately want the story, and the characters, to make some kind of emotional sense. This, however, does not happen.
Counterfeit art-house chic writ large -- a French film that fails to produce the ineffable charms of the yesteryear movies it brazenly imitates.
Besson excels at stories about rough characters who are saved through their relationship with a more civilized character (as in The Professional and La Femme Nikita). Angel-A adheres to that paradigm, but it also has more soul, humor and warmth than those
The strained fairy tale feels like writer/director Luc Besson's effort to move beyond the pop giddiness of La Femme Nikita and The Fifth Element to a mature statement about issues important to him, but the effort overshadows the message.
Angel-A drops by most of the touristy Parisian hot spots and, shot in the glorious black-and-white of Henri Cartier-Bresson, makes them all look spectacular and gritty at the same time.
Besson's dialogue is often inane, occasionally sounding like it is copied verbatim out of a new age self-help manual.
It seems Besson can be sentimental about Paris but he's still not ready to get too romantic with people.
This Parisian fable is a talkathon, affecting a silly toughness, but the sights are good to see again.
If you'd like a look at Paris in all its splendour, look no further than Angel-A. Just be sure that in order to see Paris in all its splendour you don't mind sitting through a silly little comedy with a dopey ending.
Feels like a mash-up of It's a Wonderful Life and Xanadu, without the wholesome sweetness of the first and the campy excesses of the second.
The movie doesn't aspire to be anything but a lightweight pastiche that rehashes your memories of other, better movies.
For many people, including me, the visual virtuosity behind Angel-A will be more than enough to get them over the storytelling bumps and the character inconsistencies.
Surprise, surprise - Luc Besson envisions a celestial being as a leggy, skinny super model.
[Besson's] attractive black-and-white 'Scope compositions, strong Paris locations, and effective handling of the actors makes this captivating throughout, and wholly undeserving of the drubbing it's received from many critics.
We all have our own view of paradise, but as long as Besson has Arbogast, his camera and those surreal bare Parisian streets, his schlocky heaven enchants the eye, if not the mind.
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