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ANGEL-A
Written, Produced & Directed by: Luc Besson.
Director of Photography: Thierry Arbogast.
Edited by: Frédéric Thoraval.
Music by: Anja Garbarek.
Released by: Sony Pictures Classics.
Language: French with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: France. 88 min. Rated R.
Starring: Jamel Debbouze, Rie Rasmussen, Gilbert Melki & Serge Riaboukine.

A fast-talking, cynical b.s. artist, diminutive Andre (Jamel Debbouze) has debts to gangsters and other nefarious figures all over Paris. His overt desperation only comes out when being held over a balcony, but he can’t borrow any more money, and more than one thug will wipe him out if he doesn’t come through in the next two days. Then suddenly, like a sign from God (which, as luck would have it, it is), a woman falls mysteriously into the Seine just as the suicidal Andre is about to jump off a bridge, but he saves her from drowning. She, Angela (the very tall real-life model Rie Rasmussen), very quickly revives, and soon enough convinces the reluctant Andre that she can do “anything” to help him with his troubles.

This is the basic set-up to Luc Besson’s return to directing, just now out in the US after being released in France two years ago. In a complete reversal of what he did in his feature debut Le Dernier Combat, which was all but silent in terms of dialog, Angel-A is a talking-heads movie, so to speak, as there is rarely a quiet moment with a jerky con man/would-be gangster like Andre, making it easy for Angela to point out more than once his insecurities.

A change occurs in Andre – and not just because he watches Angela lift objects on the table at a diner only with her powers. He realizes he’s being not only watched but picked specifically by God to be saved through this angel of mercy. Not since Besson’s character Leon from The Professional has there been a male protagonist so sharply and oddly comically defined by his choices in such extraordinary circumstances.

There’s no lack of inspiration for Besson in his best work – The Professional or The Fifth Element – and when Angel-A is at its best, Besson delivers a lot of potent black comedy. It’s a riot, for example, seeing Angela go through one “method” to get Andre out of his money jam by having sex with about 30 or so men in one night at a swanky bar, as Andre, guilt ridden, drinks himself stupid in embarrassment. The banter that occurs between the two of them is also refreshing, and something not heard in recent Besson ventures that he’s written and/or produced. And on the technical side, Angel-A is extremely rich in its black-and-white and often graceful cinematography by the superb Thierry Arbogast.

But these pros aside, the cons to Angel-A are hard to shake off. In the last third of the film, as Andre finally squares away debts and understands his faults as well as faces up to them, he falls head over heels for Angela, in spite of her repeated attempts to tell him his feelings can never be requited due to her “boss” up in the sky and as she must return to heaven after her mission is complete (pushing Andre to discover and own up to his best qualities). At this point, all of the biting comedy and occasional moments of emotional power are sidetracked for shameless, freewheeling, and unbearable sentimentality. Unfortunately, the tone turns into a confused and hyperactive state of push-and-pull theatrics between man and angel. What one is left with then, in this whimsical character study, are qualities of a good movie crammed into a mediocre one. Still, it should appeal to Besson’s fan base, albeit it is a lot less violent than previous efforts and less special effects laden. Jack Gattanella
May 25, 2007