City of Angels (DVD, 1998)

I saw City of Angels at one of those "discount" theaters that play movies right before they're pulled from the big screen and put out on video. I sat with in the balcony of this theater with my mother and two of her friends. Armed with my Junior Mints and my large lemonade (a combination I don't suggest to anyone, by the way) I realized I didn't have what I was going to need most - a big box of tissues. I bought the movie as soon as it came out on video, and now I never watch it without a hefty stack of Kleenex next to me.

I guess I'm a pretty spiritual person. The way this movie portrayed angels was new to me, and I kind of liked it. The opening scenes showing the number of "Angels in Black" all across the city was intriguing to me. I especially liked having them congregate in the library to read about all the feelings they can't experience, and standing on the beach at sunrise to hear the celestial music of dawn.

But on to the actual plot and acting. Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage have excellent chemistry. And they are both so sexy. I'd never have cast Meg Ryan as a doctor, but it worked. She is very real in almost every role she plays, and this was no exception. We see her go through the motions and then deal with the reality of the forces at work day in and day out in her healing profession. As for Nicolas Cage as an angel - if someone has to take me to heaven when it's my time to go, I wouldn't mind if it was him. He made me believe everything he said - no matter how hard it was to imagine a being that could not feel touch or hurt or hunger. These two made a perfect pair, rivalling the chemistry we've grown to know and love between even Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.

The plot was not necessarily the most original. But it worked for me. Nicolas Cage, an angel who was never human, falls in love with Meg Ryan, an ordinary human who will never be an angel. Free will gives him a choice to make - possibly the hardest decision anyone could ever have to make. And he makes the choice to be with her. I will not ruin the ending for anyone who has not seen the film, but the incredible irony, the terrible twist of fate...it's enough to make anyone cry.

And cry I did. When the lights came up after the credits stopped rolling, I was still sobbing. When we walked downstairs and through the lobby, people staring at me the whole way, I was still sobbing. Even when we walked down the sidewalk to the parking lot where our car was, there were still tears streaming down my face at the unfairness of the whole thing.

This movie has earned the place in my heart as "my favorite movie." At least for now. It is one of the most romantic movies of all time, in my book. Ladies, I suggest asking your honey to wear an old shirt when you rent this for your next Saturday night movie fest. If you use his shoulder to cry on instead of a tissue, it's gonna get drenched.