ANGEL EYES
SYNOPSIS:
Sexy but tough Chicago Police officer Sharon Pogue (Jennifer
Lopez) nearly becomes the victim of a shooting one night when the
mysterious trench-coated Catch (Jim Caviezel), disarms the would-be
assassin and saves Sharon's life. Is this a concerned citizen in
the right place at the right time, or something more fateful?
Though Catch won't divulge much about himself, a slow, awkward
courtship ensues, and as the two glide into love, they are forced
to deal not only with the secrets of their past, but the fact
they had met once before.
Angel Eyes: a great title, even if its significance for the film
remains unclear. An early scene ends with a slow fade where the
eyes of Jennifer Lopez are the last parts of the image to vanish,
hanging in white space like the Cheshire Cat's grin. It's an
eerie effect and for a while this seems like a promising movie
despite the implausibility of the two main characters: a tough-yet-feminine
policewoman who banters like one of the boys, and a muscular do-gooder
with an ankle-length trenchcoat and the conversation skills of an
autistic six-year-old. The first half-hour proceeds as though
under the sign of Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense: we skip back
and forth between these unlikely figures, and each seems like one
of the walking dead. Or rather everything around them is busily
blurred and unreal, while the leads stand out as detached from
the hubbub, still points in a turning world. A decent though
hardly original stylist, director Luis Mandoki likes to circle
his solitary characters with the camera, or overlay their images
with reflections in windscreens; in shadowy alleys, all-too-vivid
memories rise up to meet them like the head-lights of a truck. We
know these two are destined to come together, but we don't know
how or why. Even after they meet the mystery remains, and the
film compels for as long as it retains its ambiguity: is it a cop
thriller, a horror film, or just a romantic melodrama in Gothic
dress? It would be unfair to reveal the answer, so I'll just say
that the most intriguing plot possibilities aren't followed up.
The thrill of the opening movement gradually ebbs away; much of
what remains is unbearably slow and predictable. Still, this is
not a total loss, since Lopez and Cavaziel manage to
make their impossible characters appealing and often funny (especially
in the teasing scenes where they try to figure each other out).
Jake Wilson
Pop music-turned-movie icon Jennifer Lopez (J-Lo) returns to the
big screen with Angel Eyes, and while it's good she's back -
she's a startlet and a fine actress in the right hands - one
wonders why she chooses such lightweight, heavyhanded stuff like
this. She seems to have "romantic lead" stamped on her
actor's card, and after starring in the recent tear-jerker The
Wedding Planner, I hope this isn't a career path for her. She
smouldered as an FBI agent seduced by George Clooney in Out of
Sight (thanks to Steven Soderbergh) and sizzled next to Sean Penn
in U-Turn (thanks to Oliver Stone). But with lightweight co-stars
and featherweight directors, Lopez falls dead flat. She's great
to look at, but we already know that. So luminous here, in fact,
that it's a wonder why half the male cops on the Chicago Police
force aren't chasing her - and some of the female cops for that
matter. Angel Eyes (a title that’s nothing to do with the
plot) is a winding road to romantic harmony fraught with ill-shaped
characters and a very poor structure. Flashbacks come at odd
times, and the dealing with the past sub-plot doesn't gel with
the brewing romance. In fact, that heavy subplot often overrides
the romance, making the film more depressing than entertaining.
Then there's Jim Caviezel, who throws his last two characters (kind
hearted bum in Pay It Forward and out-of-time cop in Frequency)
into the blender to come up with this unkempt, unshaven zombie.
It's uncharacteristic a gal like Lopez's character would go for
him and all his personal baggage, but the film persists with her
curious attraction for him. All the emotion seems to be built, in
a way, not on the writing, the backstory, or the (non-existent)
chemistry between the leads, but on the beauty of their faces and
the costumes they wear. A pity to waste such talents, wouldn't
you say?
Shannon J. Harvey
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CRITICAL COUNT
Favourable: 0
Unfavourable: 1
Mixed: 1



ANGEL EYES (MA) (US)
CAST: Jennifer Lopez, James Caviezel, Terrence Dashon Howard,
Sonia Braga
DIRECTOR: Luis Mandoki
PRODUCER: Mark Canton, Elie Samaha
SCRIPT: Gerald Di Pego
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Piotr Sobocinski
EDITOR: Jerry Greenberg
MUSIC: Marco Beltrami
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Dean Tavoularis
RUNNING TIME: 102 minutes
AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR: Roadshow
AUSTRALIAN RELEASE: September 6, 2001
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