Product Details

• Actors: Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, Andre Braugher, Dennis Franz, Colm Feore
• Directors: Brad Silberling
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Special Edition, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: February 2, 1999
• Run Time: 122 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (324 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0790739909
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,886 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Some critics complained that City of Angels could never compare to Wim Wenders's exquisite German film Wings of Desire, which served as the later film's primary inspiration. The better argument to make is that any such comparisons are beside the point, because Wings of Desire was a much more deeply poetic, artfully contemplative film, whereas City of Angels is an enchanting product of mainstream Hollywood. Meg Ryan stars as Dr. Maggie Rice, a heart surgeon who is grieving over a lost patient when an angel named Seth (Nicolas Cage) appears to comfort her. She can see him despite the "rule" that angels are invisible, and Seth's love for Maggie forces him to choose between angelic immortality and a normal human existence on earth with her. Featuring heavenly roles for TV veterans Andre Braugher and Dennis Franz, the film liberally borrows imagery from Wings of Desire, but it also creates its own charming identity. Cage and Ryan give fine performances as lovers convinced they are soul mates, and although the plot relies on a last-minute twist that doesn't quite work, this earnest love story struck a chord with audiences and proved to be one of the surprise hits of 1998. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

In this slick adaptation of Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire," Meg Ryan, America's favorite child/woman, plays Dr. Maggie Rice, a heart surgeon who opens her baby blues wide and cries a lot, and Nicolas Cage is Seth, an angel with an unblinking stare who falls in love with her. Angels, according to this movie's nonexistent logic, travel at the speed of thought and are invisible except to other angels, children, and the dying. But Seth makes himself visible to Maggie, lends her his favorite novel ("A Moveable Feast"), and engages her in deep metaphysical conversation. ("How do you explain," he asks her, "the enduring myth of heaven?") Seth eventually makes the radical decision to become human, and Maggie cleans his wounds in front of a fireplace in her uncle's glamorous little cottage on Lake Tahoe. But, sure enough, tragedy beckons, enabling Seth to say, "I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand-than an eternity without it." We believe him, 'cause he's that kind of transported guy and Meg Ryan, with her tousled yellow hair, curvy smile, and prepubescent bod, is that kind of girl. -Daphne Merkin
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I'll Say It Was You", April 23, 2005

By	Bobby Underwood "starlighthotel" (Bakersfield, California United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: City of Angels (Snap Case) (DVD)

Nicolas Cage gives a wonderful performance as Seth, an Angel who falls in love and begins to long for the ability to express that love, in a film that in some respects resembles the 1930's film "Death Takes a Holiday" with Fredric March and Evelyn Veneble. Seth's assignment as an angel is to help the dead cross over in this quasi remake of the Wim Wenders foreign film, "Wings of Desire." Few films since the glory days of Hollywood and the old studio system have been given the romantic glow of this film.

Meg Ryan is Maggie, the heart surgeon who is the object of Seth's affection. He is stunned when she somehow senses his prescence when trying to save one of her patients, and is touched and bewildered by her. Andre Braugher steals every scene he is in as Seth's fellow Angel and friend. They all hang out at the library and gather every morning at the beach to see the sunrise and hear the singing of heaven.

Dennis Franz has a fine turn as a patient in Maggie's hospital who knows Seth is there because he too was once an Angel. As Seth and he become friends, Seth contemplates how wonderful it would be to truly love Maggie, and searches for the courage to leave heaven behind and, simply fall.

This is one of the most romantic movies to come out of Hollywood in decades and has a message about the wonderful things we all take for granted. More than that, it is a story about the importance of love, even one felt for only a moment, for it is that experience which makes us special among all creation. To love is all, and to be loved in return is truly divine.

There are some memorable scenes in this romantic and haunting film. One involves the simple act of shopping for fruit at a farmer's market. Another involves Maggie being able to feel Seth in her room but unable to see him. Even Hemingway's Moveable Feast plays a part in this magical throwback film to a bygone era. This is very much a film which could just as easily have been made in the 1930's.

I will not ruin the last portion of this film if you have not seen it, but as we all know there is a price we pay for being human. This film is for anyone who has ever loved someone as Seth does, who would trade all eternity for just one breath of her hair. If you have ever loved someone so much your heart ached when they were not with you, then you will be deeply moved by this film. It is painted in broad romantic brushstrokes and colored in rich oils not easily removed from our hearts. This is a truly memorable film you will watch over and over.

Films like this are rarely made anymore and this is one to cherish. You will never forget the line: "When they ask me what I liked best...I'll say it was You."

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LIVE EACH DAY AS IF IT IS YOUR LAST; ONE DAY IT WILL BE, June 13, 2000

By	Soaring Heart - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This movie is a priceless work of art: the script, cast, soundtrack, cinematography-- everything! It is also likened to an Aesop's Fable; there is a definite moral/lesson to be learned! (See above title.)

We watch the story of an angel (Seth played by N. Cage) fall in love with a Doctor (Maggie played by M. Ryan) of a heart surgery patient who was not supposed to "make it" and doesn't. While Maggie is trying to save her patient, another nurse says, "He's going." To which she looks dead at Seth and says "He's not going anywhere." Whether she actually sees him or not we don't know. Seth thinks she does; this snowballs his thinking and he begins to question his existence.

Near the end he makes a choice after some counseling from Dennis Frantz. "Free will brother," is his advice. So Seth goes for it. He becomes human and finds Maggie; they share what all humans search for and few find: a physical connection that is so deep it transcends into the spiritual. They are each others' soulmates.

This movie reaches out from the screen and captures your heart (if you still have one. If not, it reaffirms that we all have free will and we can choose to open our hearts to love again.) If you have a broken heart watch how Seth deals with his; truly an inspiration. Remember "some things are true whether you believe them or not."

"Now abide faith, hope, love these three; but the greatest of these is love." From THE HOLY BIBLE, I CORINTHIANS 13:13.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "touch" of love, December 16, 1998

By	[e-mail] (India) - See all my reviews

I could go on about how GORGEOUS Meg was, or how well the movie was made, or how great the cast was, but the others have done that already. The one thing that stuck out at me after watching the movie was the call (I felt) to revel in the simple things of life, the things that are common for us, that we take for granted ("touch", for example). I like the part where by lookig through the eyes of the "fallen" angel, you discover the joy of being alive. That's a fresh perspective that caught my attention fully. The movie is very emotional, but at the same time, deep. It doesn't get into melodrama as a lot of other other romantic movies do. All in all, I'd say it is a movie for lovers, but I'd reccommend it to anyone who wants a fresh perspective in life. Awesome soundtrack. Not exactly John Williams stuff, but still touching. You'll cry if you let yourself!