Film Review
When it was first released in 2005,
Angel-A
offered two high profile comebacks for the price of one. First
and foremost, it marked Luc Besson's long-awaited return to directing
after a five year absence. Since his last film,
The
Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), Besson had been
busy orchestrating a string of box office hits as a highly successful
film producer. These include the enormously popular
Taxi
and
Transporter series and more
substantial films such as
Les
Côtelettes (2003) and
Banlieue
13 (2004). With
Angel-A,
Besson defied the critics and demonstrated that he still has what it
takes to make original crowd-pleasing cinema.
The other comeback was that of the film's lead actor, Jamel Debbouze,
who had been conspicuous by his absence in the years following his
memorable appearance in
Astérix et Obélix Mission
Cléopâtre (2002). Debbouze is first and
foremost a comic, arguably one of France's best at the present time,
but in
Angel-A he
demonstrates that he also has an immense, as yet pretty well untapped,
talent as an actor. In what is effectively a two-handed film (the
other hand being the former Danish model Rie Rasmussen, a great piece
of casting), Debbouze shows that he can play moments of heart-rending poignancy
almost as well as he can play comedy. Perhaps one day someone
will give him a straight leading role in a film and we will be able to
see just how good he can be.
Angel-A is an engaging and
innovative film but it clearly doesn't match up to the excellence of
some of Luc Besson's previous directorial offerings. It doesn't
have the haunting poetry of
Le Grand bleu (1988), the
energy of
The Fifth Element (1997) or the
intensity of
Léon (1994), but it
still makes a favourable impression. Thierry Arbogast's
black-and-white cinematography is stunning (particularly in the
panoramic shots of Paris) and gives the film an unreal quality that
serves the story well. The use of monochrome in feature films
nowadays is always controversial but here it appears entirely
justified, bringing a harsh
film noir
dimension to the main protagonist (who is a tongue-in-cheek variant of
the classic noir anti-hero) and a dreamlike feel which makes some of
the more fanciful plot developments easier to swallow.
As ever, Luc Besson plays to his strengths - creating a bold visual
impact through imaginative design and camerwork - but is hampered by
his Achilles heel, the writing. This is by no means Besson's
worst script but its flaws are hard to ignore. Some of the
dialogue is truly cringe-worthy, most of the secondary characters are
obvious clichés, and the imagination that is evident in the
first half of the film seems to dissipate in the second. In
the hands of a less impressive director, such a mediocre script could
at best have made a mediocre film. But, as in other Luc Besson
films, it is easy to forgive these script imperfections because the
visuals are just so striking and effective.
Angela-A may not be faultless but
it still manages to be a distinctive, well-crafted and enjoyable piece
of cinema. Fans of Jamel will not be disappointed.
© James Travers 2009
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Next Luc Besson film:
Arthur et les Minimoys (2006)
Film Synopsis
28 year-old con artist André lies so easily that he has even
convinced himself he is the model citizen. In reality, he is the
type that would sell his grandmother for a packet of cigarettes.
After winning a Green Card in the lottery, he can't stop boating that
he is an American citizen, which is probably not a good thing at a time
when (in the wake of the Iraq War) most French people regard all
Americans as the spawn of Satan. André is soon snatched
out of his dream world when his creditors begin putting pressure on him
to settle his debts. He has a choice: either pay up or become
mincemeat. André knows that there is no way he can find
the money so he decides to kill himself by jumping from a bridge into
the Seine. Just before he makes the plunge, a young woman throws
herself into the river before his eyes. Infuriated at this
flagrant intrusion into his suicide, André goes in after the
woman and saves her from drowning. André cannot understand
how such a beautiful young woman, whose name, by the way, is Angela,
could want to kill herself. She tells him that she now belongs to
him, that she exists only to serve him. Before he knows it,
Angela has dealt with the hoodlums who were on André's back and
restored something of his self-confidence. Yet, the young loner
cannot help wondering who his new friend is. He is not remotely
convinced when she tells him that she is his guardian angel. At
least, not at first...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.