|
New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Angel-A
Sony Pictures Classics
MPAA RATING: R for language and some sexual content
Starring
Jamel Debbouze,
Rie Rasmussen,
Gilbert Melki,
Serge Riaboukine,
Akim Chir,
Eric Balliet,
Loïc Pora,
and
Venus Boone
A man meets a woman in Paris in unlikely circumstances, and an usual relationship blossoms.
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
Fantasy
|
Foreign
|
Romance
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Luc Besson
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Luc Besson
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: November 20, 2007
Theatrical: May 25, 2007
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
88 minutes, B/W |
| ORIGIN: |
France |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
French / Spanish (with English subtitles) |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The overall experience of the movie is of something fresh.
70
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Attractive black-and-white 'Scope compositions, strong Paris locations, and effective handling of the actors makes this captivating throughout.
70
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Angel-A isn't as nutso as some of Besson's other pictures: It doesn't have the crazy inventiveness of, say, "The Fifth Element." As I watched it, I found myself wishing it were just a little loopier. But the picture is still seductive and pleasing.
70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Movies often turn on slender notions worked up to look like full-fledged ideas. Once in a while, though, a notion will be fertile to begin with, a self-renewing source of delight. That's the case with Luc Besson's Angel-A.
67
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
The weirdly earnest literalism of Besson's story is a weak point. His desire to make Angela satisfy both sides of the Madonna-whore complex is too blatant.
63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
What's maddening about Angel-A is that Besson is so brilliant with his visuals - and so in love with his two leads and the city they're parading around - that you desperately want the story, and the characters, to make some kind of emotional sense. This, however, does not happen.
63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Angel-A is an intriguing film, but more of an interesting failure than an offbeat success.
63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Its strongest asset is the stunningly poetic cinematography by Thierry Arbogast.
63
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
There's always been a wide streak of the tediously naughty little boy in Besson, and all the seductively stylized images in the world can't hide it.
63
Premiere
Peter Debruge
A charming midlife crisis of a movie that bottles the "La Femme Nikita" director's typically high-concept inclinations in a modest indie package.
63
New York Post
Kyle Smith
A black-and-white fantasia shot against a bright backdrop of famous sites, and it has potential to be a cult hit on its dreamy-hipster look alone.
63
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
The beautiful black-and-white photography - and disappointingly sappy ending - are the only remotely sober elements here, thanks to Besson's loopy script and Debbouze's very funny turn as a loser who simply can't believe his luck.
63
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
So stunningly shot and visualized--and scored so hauntingly well by Anja Garbarek, the daughter of saxophonist/composer Jan Garbarek--that it works even if you don't pay attention to the story. Maybe it works better that way.
60
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Rie Rasmussen and Jamel Debbouze, the stars who portray Angela, the celestial therapist, and André, her star patient, display enough screwball romantic charm to keep this sugary trifle afloat longer than you'd expect.
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Under the lingerie model façade beats the heart of a celestial Dr. Phil.
50
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
What nearly saves the movie, besides the Rasmussen eye candy, is Paris itself, shot in shimmering black-and-white by the gifted Thierry Arbogast. Talk is cheap here, and often inane, but as a silent film, Angel-A could have been magic.
50
Variety
Lisa Nesselson
For his (Besson) fans, Angel-A is an achingly sincere but protracted effort to trade mostly action for mostly dialogue.
50
Village Voice
Jim Ridley
Amiably inconsequential fairy tale.
40
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Crust
In essence, you get "It's a Wonderful Life" meets "Wings of Desire," swapping out the substance for self-help platitudes. If you can get past that, you can enjoy it as a 90-minute look at a lovely postcard.
40
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
A gorgeous-looking but ill-conceived mash note to the city of Paris that riffs on its better, wiser, glaringly obvious cinematic predecessors.
38
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
The movie might have been more tolerable had Besson searched harder for a performer and not a specimen. Barbara Stanwyck in her prime might have made more sense.
30
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Angel-A is counterfeit art-house chic writ large -- a French film that fails to produce the ineffable charms of the yesteryear movies it brazenly imitates.
25
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
At heart, it's just the latest from one-man industry Luc Besson, so even though it looks like art, it plays like schlock.
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Kamal AL-Solaylee
How Besson drags this premise into 90 minutes of screen time should be of interest to the perverse among you – or anybody teaching a how-not-to-make-a-movie summer course.
16
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Angel-A shows how director Luc Besson can be French in a way that even the French might despise...Quel ick. And très tedious.
 The average user rating for this movie is 4.4 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Discuss this movie in our forums |
|
