 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 | 🎙️ EPISODE 422: 03.16.22 Starting in 2020, I decided to watch & review the entire Nicolas Cage filmography in alphabetical order. This is 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 – Chapter 14. To say that I was completely shocked by how much I enjoyed this movie would be an understatement. And that I did so in a semi-earnest manner? Mind-blowing. I went into this thinking the worst, and while it's by no means a "good" film, I found it so oddly charming. I can just think of all the pious angel faces that Nicolas Cage makes and I smile. This truly feels like a movie that could not be made today, for a variety of reasons, on multiple levels. While we mourn the death of mid-budget movies like this, we also need to recognize what we lost — for better or worse — conceptually speaking: here we have two legit A-listers and a very strong supporting cast engaged in a totally batshit plot that is played completely straight. |
The film begins with the death of a child. But please, dry your eyes. Death is just a part of life and lucky for this little girl she has an angel named Seth (played by our friend, Cage) to guide her to heaven. I said, Nicolas Cage plays AN ANGEL NAMED SETH and the first scene of this movie is him bringing a little kid to heaven...
We then get an obligatory opening montage of various Los Angeles locations ("City of Angels," get it?) and we see that there are literal angels all over the damn place and they can read our every thought as they help guide us through are various trials and tribulations. But we can't see them (yet). And they love chilling on the beach after a hard day's work...
I can't imagine how many dumb jokes would have already been jammed in if this had been made today. This premise affords endless setups (they can see us, we can't see them! watch what happens when we're alone) but they never indulge. Luckily, the only humor is unintentional: in the form of those hilarious "angels perched on various structures" green screens, and the extremely wonky "angel rules" which dictate all of the inciting incidents that felt like they were written on the fly (more on this later).
We're then introduced to Meg Ryan, just your average heart surgeon who loves Jimi Hendrix. And if you didn't already know you were watching a piece of art and not some cultural trash, the movie tells you...
Seth is summoned to take the soul of one of Meg Ryan's patients and they lock eyes and play a brief game of whose eyes are dreamier...
It was just that guy's time to go, but Meg Ryan takes it really hard. And I'm not sure it's the most ethical thing for an angel to do, but Seth reads her mind as she's having a good cry about it in the stairwell...
Seth (I'm gonna call him Seth in this review and not Cage like I usually do, because I think Seth is the funniest possible name for an angel)... Seth is positive that Meg Ryan saw him during the surgery and he chats with his angel buddy — played by the great Andre Braugher — about it as they watch over the participants in a liquor store robbery...
Here we get the first taste of our "angel rules" as Cassiel (much better angel name) tells him only the dying or delirious can see them. UNLESS THAT IS they want to be seen. Which, obviously, isn't really recommended. Or perhaps it is. It's honestly never made clear how the angels feel about interacting with non-dying humans, in general. All things considered though, this is honestly one of the more straightforward rules in the movie as you'll see. The main thing to know about the "angel rules" (or so it seems) is that they're pretty loosey goosey with 'em; you'd think if angels were real and operating on our behalf, fully hidden from sight, then they wouldn't just be able to turn off their invisibility because they fall in love with Meg Ryan, right? I digress.
We then see Seth in a big library where he likes to hang out and listen to the cacophony of thoughts, in this case: people reading books, especially Ernest Hemingway...
These brief and layered voiceovers work much better as a device than the isolated ones, which mostly come off as cheesy if not poorly written.
We're then introduced to another great character actor, NYPD Blue's butt-cheek favorite Dennis Franz, here in his FINAL acting role before retiring! What a way to go out. Franz is seriously great in this...
Meg Ryan then goes to visit her friend in the maternity ward who makes a joke (?) about a dumpster baby having no insurance (???). What even is this line...
Meg Ryan starts to get a little religious in the infant room and this is when an alert was triggered in my brain: I knew this was a "religious" movies (the angels, duh) but was it going to be a RELIGIOUS movie? As in, would there be some sort of odd Christian messaging? You'll have to keep reading this review to find out. Just as Meg Ryan is having this crisis of faith, guess who turns off their angel invisibility? That's right, ole Seth! ...
That first meeting is pretty incredible. From Seth's facial expressions to Meg Ryan waiting WAY too long to ask him who the hell he is and what he's doing there. Don't forget that, above all else, this is a Romance Movie™ and if it doesn't serve the purpose of these two falling in love, then fuggedaboutit. Throw logic out the window and try to enjoy yourself, folks.
After that, Meg Ryan goes home to basically jerk off in the bathtub thinking about the mystery man she just met as Seth angel-watches her like a damn pervert. We can read her mind as she ponders "what kind of a name is Seth?" to which I would respond, yes that seems like an odd name for an angel, but for a human? What even is this movie?? ...
Having had a nice, mostly sleepless night of drinking beer and jerking it and having Seth sex dreams and finding a Hemingway book magically appear on her bedside table, she walks into the hospital the next morning and finds her fellow surgeon and boyfriend (?) blasting cigs and shooting hoops on the roof. (I am not sure if they established this relationship before this point honestly.) ...
Classic surgeon behavior! And yes, that guy has definitely held a basketball before shooting that scene. A little bit later we see Seth is reading Meg Ryan some Hemingway at the library for some reason. He says he lives in the library and she doesn't even bat an eye. Meg. Come on, man. That's a big-time 🚩. This is the weirdest and most intense flirting I've ever seen...
All the angels are watching them as they leave the library together and it's either bad or good. Who can really say. Again, the general consensus on where this kind of angel behavior falls amongst the other angels is never made clear. Angels just seem to be like sweet, almost child-like bros...
They have their first date at a farmer's market and Seth asks Meg Ryan to describe how a pear taste because he is an angel and has never eaten "food"...
Then they go continue their date at the hospital where Seth sniffs Meg Ryan's hair and they look at shit in a microscope and he asks some philosophical questions...
Every bit of this dialogue is hilariously bad and Cage, I mean Seth is delivering every line of it in the way I suppose he thinks an actual angel would: wide-eyed, an almost whisper, as if no one has ever uttered words before in the history of mankind. But their little microscope party gets broken up when Meg Ryan is summoned to Dennis Franz's room. There we find out that Dennis Franz can see Seth in angel form. Hmmm, what's that all about? Then Meg Ryan goes home and has a fight with her boyfriend about dog ticks...
But they make up and go off to have sex and Seth, who was angel-spying on them, gets super sad...
So Seth goes back to the hospital to hang out with Dennis Franz and get the skinny on why this dude can see him, etc...
Franz is so good in that scene. Maybe the only person in the world who can get away with making fun of Meg Ryan for having small titties. You see, he's a former angel! And they go to a diner for some exposition about just how one transitions from being an angel to a human...
They continue their conversation on some construction high beams as Dennis Franz blasts a cig. This seems very dangerous for the human Dennis Franz but he explains to Seth that he chose to be a construction worker because he loved heights so much, being a former angel and all, and that checks out...
Then Dennis Franz, who loves showing that ass on camera, goes skinny-dipping as all the angels watch...
A couple things. First — one more time — Dennis Franz is the best. I only vaguely recall seeing bits and pieces of NYPD Blue as a kid, but now I kinda wanna look up his entire filmography. And secondly, the real crux of the picture, thematically speaking, was laid out in those sequences. This isn't so much a Christian/religious film, but one about freewill. So all you atheists can chill the fuck out. I was a bit worried at the onset that there would be some weird pious undertones too, but that isn't the case.
At this point, Seth has pretty much made up his mind it seems, but he goes to visit with angel friend Cassius in front of some more horrendous green screens...
It's amazing how little — next to fucking nothing, really — these angels know about being angels and the angel rules, etc. And they are both whining about not being able to do simple human things like read, but Seth can recite Hemingway from memory, so was he not "reading" before? I mean, I guess he was just listening, but now we're getting into are audiobooks reading or not territory so let's just stop. Of course, the fact that they're having this convo on a giant cowboy statue just adds to the overall charm of this movie and it's incredibly easy to throw logic out the window and enjoy the ride.
Seth and Meg Ryan go a park and she asks him if he's a drummer and why he never touches her and then they kiss but because he's an angel she can't feel the kiss (?) so she gives him the ole "see ya around, buddy"...
Flash-forward to a welcome home party at Dennis Franz's house and did I mention how even just the tiniest nothing moments are made better by Dennis Franz? ...
(Just a brief sidebar: How Meg Ryan dresses in this is so funny to me. What the hell is that style?! She's dressed like Obama when he used to not wear ties.)
At the party, Meg Ryan sees Seth cut his hand only he doesn't cut his hand because he is an angel and she gets super suspicious so she tries to cut him (!) and she demands to know his full name, and he tells her — wait for it — that his name is SETH PLATE. Just watch this amazing CGI and dialogue...
So Seth comes clean about being an angel and Meg Ryan is all like, OMG wow so cool. JK, she freaks the fuck out and tells him to get out. This transitions into a montage featuring (OF COURSE) the Sarah McLachlan song "Angel." The 'tage features Meg and Seth looking sad in various places. Seth tries to smoke a cig at one point. Then he angel-molests her a little...
The next day Meg Ryan's boyfriend proposes to her. The timing of this guy, am I right? He uses some language that suggests he might've had early access to the City of Angels script...
Same species? Human. Not angel. Get it? They were also able to jam in a little heart surgeon play on words there. A+ screenwriting, folks.
Meg Ryan then goes to see Dennis Franz who tells her that he was a former angel too and that Seth is legit. Don't worry, he's gonna fall to earth any day now. He's not dragging his angel feet. But Meg Ryan confronts him at the library and it still seems like he's on the fence, that maybe he wants to continue this relationship in its current angel-human form. That's a no-go as far as Meg Ryan goes. She needs that
So Seth mans up, I mean angels up, and jumps off a high structure as the soundtrack oddly transitions into some tribal beats and chanting...
He did it! Seth is a human now! He wakes up on an active construction site, bloody and battered, and feeling alive. Some constructions workers yell at him so he leaves and does a funny dance down the road. Then some old Asian ladies also yell at him. You would think an angel might know more than one language but that isn't the case...
Seth the human goes to the hospital looking for Meg Ryan but she ain't there. However, he gets the goods from her maternity ward friend from before...
Lake Tahoe, here we come! But first, Seth is immediately beaten up by some street toughs as soon as he tries to hitchhike. Man, like, being human isn't all it's cracked up to be ya know? ...
But a kindly trucker with a hound dog offers to drive him from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe as that famous Goo Goo Doll song plays. When he gets there he finds her absolutely baller pad by looking up the address in a phone booth yellow pages (oh, 1998).
Meg Ryan cleans up his wounds and they profess their love for one another. Meg tells Seth that she dumped the other doctor. He waxes poetic about freewill a little bit before they get to some tasteful boning...
And that's basically that. They live happily ever aft——
WAIT THERE ARE STILL OVER 20 MINUTES LEFT?! Hmm, what could possibly happen here? I honestly don't know how they're going to fill the last 20 minutes of this movie. One thing they do right away is play on the new "fish out of water" aspect of this whole fallen angel thing. Yes, they expect their dumb audience to think that this former angel who has been roaming the earth for Lord knows how long and can recite Hemingway at the drop of a hat doesn't know what perfume is or how showers work...
It also seems like a commercial for Lake Tahoe maybe? I mean, sure, I'm sold. Thanks to this glowing endorsement from Mr. & Mrs. Plate. Look at this beautiful place...
We then see the iconic "Meg Ryan riding her bike with no hands and her eyes closed" shot. And I now know exactly why it's iconic. BECAUSE SHE RIDES HER BIKE RIGHT INTO A GIANT TRUCK HAULING A MASSIVE FUCKING REDWOOD TREE OR SOME SHIT AND SHE DIES. She's dead...
If you know this movie, shit, if you know ANYTHING about this movie, maybe the thing you know about it is that MEG RYAN RIDES HER BIKE RIGHT INTO A GIANT TRUCK HAULING A MASSIVE FUCKING REDWOOD TREE OR SOME SHIT AND SHE DIES. I, however, was not aware of this. And I was SHOCKED. Here's what my notes look like from watching that happen in real-time...
Hell yeah the "iconic" Meg Ryan no-hands bike image. A nice way to kick of this blissful, drama-free denouement. They're gonna live happily — OH NO OH FUCK NOIn many ways this is the perfect ending. Because it so much sappier this way. The ultimate romantic story will always be the one where love is forever just out of reach, an incomplete circle. So Meg Ryan fucking drives her bike into a truck pulling a redwood tree. (Also, I realize she was doing the hands-free, eyes closed thing, but how did she not HEAR the truck? Talk about not using all your senses!)
Seth is pretty messed up by all this obviously. So he does what anyone would do in his situation (his situation being that he just gave up being an angel who could live forever to spend a limited amount of time on earth with Meg Ryan whom he fell in love with while creepily stalking her as an angel, only she immediately dies after he does this transition from angel to human): he goes to the farmer's market and maniacally fondles some pears, all of the pears...
There's so much to just easily hate in this film (or ironically love). But its real strength is that it is truly grounded by some meaningful scenes and powerful performances. Like, Andre Braugher shows up at the end and he's great and I unironically thought this was a nice, well-acted moment...
The movie ends with Seth finally biting into that pear, and then returning to angel beach at sunset to jump into the ocean with all his clothes on. Look, I'm not scared to admit that I genuinely like this. In part because of its cringe moments but also because, within some of those buckets of sap and overwrought romance, there is something beautiful, brought forth by these two movie stars in their prime and a couple terrific character actors. They don't really make 'em like this anymore: a film that plays a premise as wacky as this completely deadpan and 100% earnestly. It also has a banger late 90s soundtrack, topped off during the credits with the best song Alanis Morrisette ever wrote...
It's been a nice little respite here in my alphabetical Nicolas Cage journey, what with Birdy, Bringing Out the Dead, Captain Corelli's Mandolin and this breaking up the slog of late 2010s insanity. My goal moving forward is to get at least two of these out a month and hopefully more going forward. Thanks for thanks for coming on this long, strange trip with me.
THE VERDICT: 7 CAGES OUT OF 10 • CLICK HERE for all 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 Chapters + Ongoing Rankings.
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 421 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 423 ⫸
⫷ EPISODE 421 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 423 ⫸
City of Angels is a 1998 American romantic fantasy film directed by Brad Silberling and starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. Set in Los Angeles, California, the film is a loose remake of Wim Wenders' 1987 film Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin), which was set in Berlin. As with the original, City of Angels tells the story of an angel (Cage) who falls in love with a mortal woman (Ryan), and wishes to become human in order to be with her. With the guidance of a man (Dennis Franz) who has already made the transition from immortality, the angel falls and discovers the human experience. It was released on April 10, 1998.
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