City of Angels - Review

I watched City of Angels yesterday. Its about a city that is full of angels, who observe 'human' life with the curiosity of child & do their job (i.e. to take dead people from Earth to God ). I liked the storyline. It has a mystic feel.

The story revolves around an angel Seth (Nicolas Cage), who falls in love with pretty, blond-haired and blue eyed 'human' Dr. Maggie Rice (Meg Ryan). Maggie, who is very emotional and diligent medical professional and considers saving a patient on her operation table to be the ultimate goal of her life. She gets frustrated when she sees her patient dying, despite her utmost efforts. She takes its blame on herself and feels powerless & depressed because she realizes that there are some things out of her control. Maggie has a doctor boyfriend, but she does not (try to) understand whether she loves him or not. Seth, the angel, comes to her rescue, partly because he loves her. When Seth 'shows' up, (generally angels can't be seen by humans & they can reveal their identity on their own will) she thinks he is a human, but is equally amused by curious (or quirky) questions like 'how does pear taste like to you?', 'what do you feel like when you are in love?'. This is because angels can't 'feel' human emotions like pain, fear, hunger, thirst. They live eternal life & take pleasure in listening to the music of sunshine (This scene where all angels gather near sea shore at the time of sunrise or sunset, to hear music of sunshine, is shot with amazing artistic sense). Slowly Maggie starts thinking he is 'weird' and when she sees he cannot feel pain from the cut of knife, she completely freaks out and dumps him out of fear. Later on, one of her patients, Nathaniel, who is a fallen angel, tells her he can become a human if she wants him too.

So Seth chooses to become a human by falling down from a building (something on the lines of 'fallen' angels living earthly life). Camera wonderfully captures (human) Seth's amazement towards human emotions. He feels pain, gets drenched in rain, gets mugged too. Now Seth meets Maggie and they dream long & happy life.

This is where movie slumps from its mystic feel. Maggie meets an accident & she dies and you feel it was waste for Seth to become a human, now that his has lost his love of the lifetime. But Seth justifies his being human by saying that a day with Maggie was worth thousand lives. And the movie ends with Seth swimming in waves & enjoying the sea-shore in 'human' way while his fellow angels are listening to the music of sunshine.

I would rate it about 6 out of 10. Because the movie doesn't reach the climax of movies like Titanic. But the picturization is amazing. There are few side-stories where we get to see human emotions in different circumstances. For example, the scene in which a robber is looting a grocery shop. When he holds cashier at the gun point, what robber is thinking & what poor old cashier is thinking.

Overall, movie wins because of its novel concept & soft dreamy, romantic theme but loses its momentum at the end.