Finally, a movie this year that knocked my socks off. As my friend Randy said right after, "I want to see it again." There's nothing quite like a movie with a happy ending when the last spoken word is "merde!"
Andre (Jamel Debbouze) is an Algerian in Paris with a U.S. Green Card who owes a lot of money to a some very bad people. He's so down on himself that he can't get arrested. When he jumps off a bridge to save a leggy blond stranger from killing herself he complains about her interfering with his suicide attempt.
Angela (Rie Rasmussen) is a chain-smoking enigma to Andre as she helps him solve his financial problems and makes him take a hard look at himself and acknowledge his good qualities. She does tell him she is an angel who is supposed to help him out, but he really has a hard time believing that anyone, even God or an angle, would care about him.
Shot in black and white Paris looks beautiful in this movie. I think the choice to go b/w was well made as color would have been a distraction from the story, and the metaphor works because Andre did not have a lot of color in his life when Angela entered it.
Much as this may sound like "It's a Wonderful Life" I think it is a closer relative to "Wings of Desire." In fact, that'd make a great double feature if/when "Angel-A" comes out on DVD.
This movie made me want to dance and drink vodka tonics.
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