By Scott Aramaki Aggie Arts Writer . With the always extraordinary Nicolas Cage as a lovestruck angel, a resurgent Meg Ryan as his human love interest, a dependable stable of character actors in supporting roles and a surprisingly hypnotic number by Alanis Morrissette, Brad Silberling's City of Angels should have been an easy sell. Angelic intervention has been a popular theme in American cinema, but the possible romantic relationship between angels and the humans with whom they come in contact has not been explored. Instead, Angels literally falls to earth with a crash and never gets back on its feet, relying on a sappy center plot to keep it moving.
Angels starts with promise.
In fact, Seth is so captivated by this Dr. Maggie Rice that he decides to stalk her. And his obsessive behavior could not have come at a better time. This acquaintance is later revealed to be an angel who has fallen from the ranks of the heavenly by choice. When Rice finally learns who Seth really is, he faces the difficult decision of either trying to forget his first human love or taking the dive and becoming a fallen angel himself. Most of the dialogue deals with the importance of love, however brief and shallow.