Angel-A Details

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Don't read this unless you are happy to know the ending

What a beautiful movie! The acting is fine, the location is fantastic, the director is has a superb reputation ... so why do I give this only 3 stars?

Well. It's about an angel who comes to earth to help the low-life guy to discover the love and goodness inside of himself - right? She does this in a 'the end justifies the means' kind of way. And then what happens? She sprouts wings and goes back up to heaven - job done.

Actually not. The guy falls in love with and holds onto the angelic perfection - pulling her back to earth where they can live happily ever after. With a fallen angel. That's what the bible says the devil was, isn't it? Not so happy.

Either the ending is just plain muddled or it is deeper than I give Luc Besson credit for. I am plumping for the former. My deeper spiritual reading that makes sense of this ending (if you are interested) is as follows: it is our attachment to external 'sources' of beauty and love that creates 'evil' (the devil). That rather than relying on angels or gods we should have the courage to be with ourselves and find our own love - even though this can be hard and painful. Holding onto ideas of an external, all powerful 'god' (or his angelic representatives) may bring a seemingly happy ending in the short term ... but in the long run it saps us of our ability to be genuinely free and self-realised. Probably.

All of that said - the chick is horny and she wears a very short dress. Works for me!

learning to love oneself

Angel-A is a cleverly put together luc besson film set in paris. Deciding to shoot the film in black and white gives the timeless tale timeless appeal. It's a tale of a man on the wrong side of the tracks, dodgy dealings, huge debts and lies - lying to himself in particular. The man, Andre (played by Jamel Debbouze), isn't a bad guy, he just doesn't realise that he's a bad guy, until he meets Angela. Angela provides a looking glass through which Andre can see himself, see where he's gone wrong and offer him a hope. And isn't that what we all want? Someone to fall from the sky and give us hope? The parallels with It's a Wonderful Life are obvious but this is not a modern rehash of an old classic, it's a modern, lonely and at times deeply moving story of a man who slowly learns to love himself.