Angel-A

A black-and-white film set in one of the world's romantic cities, telling of a compulsive liar and scam artist seeking redemption with the aid of a beautiful woman, the whole thing set to a classy jazz soundtrack. Woody Allen? No, this is Luc Besson, of all people - but rest assured, the director of Nikita and producer of the Taxi series hasn't gone mushy on us. There's enough of the underbelly of society (loan sharks, strip clubs, that sort of thing) to warrant comparisons with a film I can't name for fear of spoiling the entire plot.

Jamel Debbouze moves away from the comedy for a change and boy is he good at it - he even manages to deliver an incredibly cheesy line with such sincerity you don't question it for a couple of seconds. Rie Rasmussen, as his muse, gets most of the fun stuff to do but rises to the occasion beautifully when probing at her character's soul. These two share the screen for the vast majority of the film's running time and are more than up the challenge.

For all that, it has to be said they are vying with a formidable opponent for the audience's attention, as Paris looks utterly stunning here - to say Angel-A does for Paris what Manhattan did for New York is no exaggeration. True, the city looks impossibly clean and the streets are deserted, yet despite this lack of realism, you'd still move there in a heartbeat.

(4th August 2006)

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