The Dreamlife of Angels
You'll wonder at first whatThe Dreamlife of Angelshas to do  with the everyday lives and loves of two working-class girls who become unlikely buddies in the gray, cold city of Lille. It's worth waiting to find out. Isa's all big-eyed gamine (Élodie Bouchez), her dark hair short-cropped,  a generous mouth given to smiles--she incandesces from homely to arresting radiance. Lacking roots, money, even a permanent roof, this open-hearted twentysomething embraces life as a parade of possibilities, demonstrating a rare gift for making authentic creature contact. In contrast, blonde, slender Marie (Natacha Régnier) suggests a fallen angel, her delicate features frozen into a permanent rictus of suspicious contempt. Class-conscious, this material girl hungers for upscale salvation. Mischievous peasant and would-be princess stalk good-looking guys in the mall; smoke and share confidences in bed; tease a couple of hefty club bouncers, one of whom comes to care, with surprising tenderness, for indifferent Marie. But all the energy and zest flow from Isa (auditioning for club work, her Madonna imitation is flat-out infectious, while Marie slouches through a listless "Lauren Bacall"). When Marie goes literally mad for a promiscuous club owner (Grégoire Colin)--his wealth and beauty the dream she's been living for--their lovemaking's like warfare; her prideful resistance to his power over her spirit and body is what first--and briefly--turns him on. Bouchez and Régnier rightfully shared Best Actress honors at Cannes: their characters--as well as the comatose girl Isa helps to call back to life--are endearingly earthbound angels, sustained or betrayed by their respective aspirations. First-time director Erick Zonca makes us feel palpably the small, warming pleasures of human existence, the pure, cold pain of a damaged soul exiled from her "heaven."  Woven seamlessly intoDreamlife's plaincloth design is a persistent faith in miracles.--Kathleen Murphy