Though I'm tempted to say that the thread title tells you everything you need to know, I must slightly expand by saying that that is a good thing.

Jimmy Stewart's loser has nothing on the depth of the loserness of Angel-A's loser, and to boot, ya get a full-on loser angel -- bonus!!!

...and did I mention it's a romance too?

I really enjoyed it, but then I'm a sucker for these life-affirming flicks when they're done right like this one. Lovely tone, lovely setting, lovely actors -- what can I say -- it's directed by Luc Besson, who can crap better movies than most directors...

5 out of 5.

That is what I wrote:


No, they are not a dream pair, when they walk along the river Seine: André and Angela. Loser André (Comedian Jamel Debbouze) has used up all credits of the civil and the criminal world. On an early Sunday morning, the small and slight man has arrived at his personal dead-endstreet after his last “investment”-idea failed bitterly because of his own big mouth. But before taking the exit by jumping off one of the Seine-bridges, he realizes that he is not alone.
This is how he meets Angela (topmodel Rie Rasmussen) who has obviously a similar idea. But now she’s been rescued by his his first good deed in life. Well, the knock-out woman in the sexy party-dress, who is more than one head taller than the messy André, is grateful. In fact, she teams up with him to make him a better man. Not an easy task, because she will show him his bad sides by living them out: She smokes like train, drinks like a horse and fucks for money, while André’s big mouth gets smaller and smaller.
Not only physically Angela is way out of his league. She promises him love and at the same time she damages herself. Guilt keeps piling up inside of him. But yet, there are still debts to be paid, before starting a new life. So they head for mobster Franck (Gilbert Melki) to come clean. On their way, André slowly realizes that all her talk about being an angel may actually be true. What will happen after André has become a changed man? Can she really love him? Can angels actually love?

In Paris, they obviously can. Luc Besson’s 10th directing work “Angel-A” is a love-poem in black and white. The raw-model for this crazy hommage to the city of love is obvious. Almost 20 years after Wim Wenders ”Der Himmel über Berlin” (“Wings of Desire”), France’s most successful commercial filmmaker (“The Fifth Element”) calls a new angel down to earth. Unlike the seriuos and intellectual discourse of German filmmaker Wenders, Besson prefers to keep it simple and touching. His amour fou is ironic, satiric and full of absurdities on film- and real life. It’s a wild romance that has Besson written all over the place.
The comedy’s grand gesture proclaims love through tolerance and solidarity as the most important modern virtues. Thierry Arboghast delivers a visually intriguing road-trip when following the obscure dreamteam through Paris with his camera. But there is more necessary than CGI-effects to down-size André’s vivid fantasies to healthy real-life opportunities. It’s mostly Angela’s convincing appearance that does the trick and offers absurdity to the fascinated audience.
The powerful 91 minutes of "Angel-A" are kept trivial, superficial and entertaining, and at the same time also touching, funny and provoking. The world of Besson has always been like that. “Angel-A” reminds of his breakthrough-feature “Subway” (1985), the stylish film noir about the romance between a punk-musician and an upper-class mobster-wife. So, why should he change that for a constantly babbling dwarf and a long-legged, sexy angel?
His pulp fiction avoids dull moral implications, and prefers to celebrate life and love in Paris. You are invited to celebrate with him and “Angel-A”.

Angel-A was a damn good movie.

I loved it.

8/10 (B+)

I loved it too. 8/10 (B+)