Angel-A

A good film, which surprisingly pleases even in black and white, where Besson didn't even resort to using the full-color palette in the end, although the plot almost called for it. It’s a nice romantic story that's a bit grittier, but perhaps not as gritty as you'd like for it to be exceptional rather than just a frantic game for the audience. (2016.06.02)

The critical comments from users and their low reviews undoubtedly stem from disappointment that Luc Besson did not make a new Nikita or Leon film - in short, they were expecting a different genre and a different plot. After earning respect in the French film industry with his action films, Besson was able to experiment with different genres and attempted to create a poetic romantic film about the relationship between an angel and a worldly sinner. The problem is that the poetry on the screen does not work very well because the chemistry between Debbouze and Rasmussen does not work for several reasons. Angel-A honestly works only until Angela appears on the screen, and that is unfortunately too soon. This film should have been made as a pure comedy because Jamel Debbouze has great comedic talent and is primarily cast as a performer in movies or TV shows. Rie Rasmussen is primarily a model and celebrity who could probably handle a comedic role, but she has difficulty managing this melodramatic role even as an experienced actress. The film simply presents itself too seriously and tries to sell a relationship where the girl is half a meter taller than her suitor. It is naive, poorly thought out, and ultimately ineffective. In terms of Luc Besson's work, it can be considered an unsuccessful experiment. Overall impression: 40%. (2011.04.04)

A stereotype in both form and content. It brings nothing new to the subject matter, which we're seeing for the hundredth time, and all the hypothetical power of the dialogue is lost in the unbearable shouting. Jamel Debbouze was great in Amélie and in Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, but he should never, and I mean really never, receive serious roles because he is simply laughable. Besides, the script doesn't help him much because his character stops behaving like a repulsive idiot about ten minutes after his "transformation". And I don't know if the ending was supposed to be touching or impressive, but it had the exact opposite effect and I can't remember the last time I felt so embarrassed watching a movie. The second star is for the pleasant visuals and Luc Besson's attention to detail. (2006.11.09)

If Besson was fifteen, please. At the very least, I would have respected the juvenile story about the cowardly little loser escorting a four-meter angel from a modeling runway so she can show him on the way how to love or at least respect himself. And I'm actually more of an apologist for his immaturity. However, Angel-A comes across as unsympathetically underdone and uninspiring. From the man behind films like Subway and Nikita, I would have expected the main Angel-A to demonstrate its true character in a way a bit more distinctive than a levitating ashtray. And that’s how it is with everything here. Arbogast's cinematography may make for pretty postcards, but it's terribly flat and has only one plane almost all the time (the two club scenes are an honorable exception). That makes the film a first-rate Rie Rasmussen promo-reel, but nothing else. Still, I understand that the wheels of Europe Corp. must have been greased with the ink of Besson's 4 scripts a year back then, and Angel-A looks exactly like that. It's a trite, written-in-two-nights fable that no one ever reads afterwards, and it provides its greatest entertainment only in watching how the writer/director projects himself into it. That is to say, as a neurotic totem with an attractive woman at his side who, though she at first teaches him how to live, he actually ends up teaching her how to live when she understandably falls tragically in love with him through her tears. Despite the fact that he does absolutely nothing to earn her favor the entire time. Unless she's turned on by the constant tugging on her arm when she goes somewhere. There's so much of that in the movie, it should have its own place in the credits. (2021.09.06)