Synopsis
When guardian angel Seth – who invisibly watches over the citizens of Los Angeles – becomes captivated by Maggie, a strong-willed heart surgeon, he ponders trading in his pure, otherworldly existence for a mortal life with his beloved. The couple embarks on a tender but forbidden romance spanning heaven and Earth.
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Cast
- Nicolas CageSeth
- Meg RyanMaggie Rice
- Andre BraugherCassiel
- Dennis FranzNathaniel Messinger
- Colm FeoreJordan
- Robin BartlettAnne
- Joanna MerlinTeresa Messinger
- Sarah DampfSusan
- Rhonda DotsonSusan's Mother
- Nigel GibbsDoctor
Recommendations
- 90
Variety
The endlessly resourceful Nicolas Cage, as a celestial angel, and a terrifically engaging Meg Ryan, as a pragmatic surgeon, create such blissful chemistry that they elevate the drama to a poetic level seldom reached in a mainstream movie. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
An odd hybrid but a successful one. It marries the lyricism and heavy atmosphere of a European art film with the soaring spirit of a Hollywood love story. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
What I did appreciate is that City of Angels is one of the few angel movies that knows one essential fact about angels: They are not former people. ”Angels aren't human. We were never human,” observes Seth. This is quite true. Angels are purely spiritual beings. - 70
Salon
Neither Ryan nor Cage indulges in their usual excesses -- hers a perky, chipmunk vivacity and his a rampant goofiness that's always struck me as disingenuous…doesn't try too hard, doesn't lean on or overexplain its spiritual underpinnings and doesn't push for tears. As a result, it turns out to be pretty effective in drawing them. - 60
TV Guide Magazine
For all the "touched by an angel" sentimentality, the movie's eerie, slightly menacing vision of black-clad angels lurking in the shadowy corners of unsuspecting lives is genuinely haunting. - 50
San Francisco Examiner
City of Angels will probably work better for some people than it did for a crusty fellow like me. I feel guilty that I don't like this movie more. I think the devil got the better of me. - 50
Christian Science Monitor
Many will welcome the movie's interest in spirituality, but some may wonder why it's couched in a celebration of sensual pleasures ranging from sex to cigarette smoking. - 40
Austin Chronicle
Even if you accept this plot contrivance, the consummation of this union of souls isn't very emotionally involving -- it lacks that transcendence you associate with stories in which love knows no bounds.
