ShangLuda
Admirable film.
TrueHello
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Robert Joyner
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Framescourer
One part Les Amants du Pont Neuf, one part Wings Of Desire this is a quirky, entertaining but - underneath its skin - fairly predictable and sentimental story about the dispossessed soul.Angel-A might or might not be one (an angel, dummy). Jamel Debbouze as Andre is certainly not, being as guilty of being naive as he is of frittering away ill-gotten funds. However, his golden heart saves the rather translucent one that Angel-A has tucked away in whatever spare wrinkle of space there is under Rie Rasmussen's tightly wound mini- dress. It's a parable about many things and, Luc Besson being who he is, it's not shy of talking about the power of infatuation as well as more chaste love. The characters are nicely played and stylishly filmed although their dialogue doesn't necessarily have the panache.This is a film about people and Paris that swings between the unusual and the predictable. if it had been made by anyone with less sense of fun I think I'd have liked it less. 6/10
Tim Kidner
I love my World cinema and hats off, with all sincerity to Luc Besson for keeping Angel A totally French. He obviously has the talent and clout to be Mr Hollywood, if he so wished.I also love my romantic and fresh French New Wave and most in-between. I particularly like Monsieur Besson when he's doing action, Hollywood style but with that Gallic twist. I must admit, after seeing this, I prefer that side of his creative brilliance. The Fifth Element is one of my all-time favourite sci-fi's, Leon is just brilliant and Nikita is true guilty pleasure personified but with that added 'spice'. The German 'Wings Of Desire' by Wim Wenders, from 1987 is a classic comparison, but where Angel A tries so hard and maybe too hard, Wings Of does it majestically, silently, gracefully. Less is much more, in this case. I still enjoyed Angel A and in particular the disparity between the angel Angela and Andre, the debt-ridden unfortunate she is sent to 'save'. There is also some relevant updating as to what Paris is and maybe has become.Much has been vaunted of the cinematography and one has to admire a director contemplating monochrome these days. Wings Of Desire shares Angel A's black & white but with occasional colour, and whilst some beautifully evocative Parisian scenes in Besson's film are magical, the clinical cleanliness of modern digital black & white saps emotion and feeling (I'm a photographer, myself). A slight graininess and a few foggy mornings to add that missing element of magical fantasy would have done a lot for this film.However, I did find the finale both very moving, but baffling also. It's almost that the ending was rushed or the story ran out of ideas. I'm afraid it didn't make me wonder too much. Explaining further would add a spoiler, but I hope others who have seen Angel A might agree. Awarding only 6/10 seems harsh, certainly to me, but a seven would elevate it to films that are simply better.
tipsycitrus
'I am a reflection of you' Angela tells Andre, with an assured, smile over their table at a Parisian café.'What, a beautiful, 6 foot tall slut?' He asks, amused.'Yes.' For those who truly read into those lines, I believe them to be the summation of Andre's dual character profiles (the aesthetic averageand the beautiful inside 'put simply', as Angela might say) and the marrying of all the elements together in this Luc Besson beauty...Angela is the physical manifestation of Andre's 'inside'. In physicality - on which we all naturally draw instant conclusions on the people we encounter...she is the obvious everything that Andre can't see in himself, as it would mean looking past the 'first layer' - the surface.His good nature evokes the saying of those who stand '6 feet tall' purely on the grounds of his goodness - a man to be looked up to. Her 'sluttiness' - that dress and attitude - is a reference to Andre's habit of whoring himself out indiscriminately to anyone, regardless of their true intentions, who'll show him the slightest bit of attention or superficial kindness (the gambling scene and it's lead-up in the bar, embodies this). Her beauty, the embodiment of the western mainstream ideals of femininity and attractiveness - tall, long-legged, blonde, generally model looking - refer to the all-pervasive 'good' that Andre really is inside.Luc, instead of being conventionally preachy by consistently arguing the self is more important than the superficial - actually engages both, a physical manifestation - one in which we all recognise - to exemplify another in a way that couldn't possibly be lost on his audience.Very well done.That line truly made the film for me - otherwise, an elegant, jovial, delicate and smooth-running watch.
rapace33
"Angel-A" it is some kind of a French remake from the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" with James Stewart. If you love Paris, You will love this movie. A magnificent cinematography in black-and-white in the landscapes of the city of lights. Paris ( la Belle ). As a Parisian myself now leaving in the USA, I am also recommending to watch the making of the movie, fascinating. Tons of Behind the Scenes Footage. "Mais biensur", knowing the French language helps tremendously. I am certain that it is losing a lot in translation because of the extensive use of the slang language by all the characters in the movie. it is not as powerful the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" or the movie "some like it hot" or "the misfit" all movies made in black and white. Yet it grows on you and it is an excellent comedy, when you have been able to stop judging the movie for the choice of all the characters. But I realized that to make the movie plausible, the choice of characters make sense even though that I would have preferred to here the language of Molière, but we are in the 21st century where French language now are using words such as computeur or couriel. Not a lot to celebrate about the French language nowadays, I know that the French have drifted away from the writing of Victor Hugo or Balzac. I am accepting the evolution of the language and I can therefore say that I have enjoyed the movie.
