Review of Angel-A (2005) by Cyrus B — 13 May 2008

ANGEL-A.

Angel-A(Details here), is a new film from famous director Luc Besson. Having achieved success around the globe, he has returned to France and has made this highly artistic movie shot in and around Paris.

Jamel Debbouze plays Andre, a down and out in Paris, usually living in America, he has lost his papers and all his money, and having borrowed money off the wrong people, has put himself in an awkward situation. About to jump off of a bridge, a beautiful young woman beats him to it, where he dives in and rescue's her, beginning an interesting friendship, as this woman helps him straighten his life out.

The highly stylistic feel of this film is visible from the offset. Shot in black and white, each frame of the movie is carefully considered giving us exceptionally aesthetically pleasing visuals. With a poignant soundtrack, that only breaks down into terrible cliché once, we are given a audio-visual feast.

Performances make the characters involved very likable, and add a whimsical tone to the subject matter that is sometimes not quite so pleasant. The character play between the lead characters is entertaining and amusing, as Andre's frustration and Angela's(Rie Rasmussen) cool headedness collide.

The narrative however, weakens for a while at the midpoint, as the situation becomes saturated and new input is needed which comes a few scenes too late. The ending is swamped in cliché, but the viewer feels the need to have the story pan out this way, however the stereotypical music at this stage really brings the tone down.

Overall, Angel-A is a spectacularly beautiful piece of art, and is exceedingly entertaining, with some fantastic character inter-play. At a few stages it undoes some of it's great work, and the ending could have been worked better, but this is certainly a high quality piece of cinema. Definitely a must see for cinema fans, and entertaining enough for most viewers.