Angel Eyes

Ouch. Jennifer Lopez is now 0-for-three in her last three pictures. First there was the oppressive and dull “The Cell,” then the insipid and dull “The Wedding Planner,” and now there is “Angel Eyes,” a fourteen carat snoozathon from writer Gerald Dipego and director Luis Mandoki. It is hard, watching this picture, to understand exactly what kind of movie they thought they were making. The previews hinted at a romantic mystery, perhaps even a thriller, but the picture itself turns out to be a treacly slog through some extremely well-worn territory, featuring characters with the emotional depth of a carrot stick trying to cope with problems that are easily eclipsed by those in any decent TV movie of the week. Lopez (who had better rethink her whole approach to choosing roles) plays Sharon Pogue (Pogue? Isn't that a kind of fish?), a tough Chicago cop trying to keep up appearances with her colleagues while secretly mending her heart at home. She just can’t seem to find love, the poor creature. One day she responds to the scene of an accident, where she comforts one of the victims, a young man.

Flash forward a year later, and now the young man (who is named Steve, but calls himself Catch, for reasons that are unclear even after the picture is over) is apparently following Sharon around like a homeless puppy. When the opportunity presents itself, he saves her life, and she then does the only logical thing for a tough Chicago cop confronted with a possibly deranged man: she starts dating him. Now, if Sharon had kicked Catch’s caboose from here to State Street for stalking her, that would have been interesting. If Catch turned out to actually have a dark side (as the preview suggested), or an ulterior motive, that would have been interesting. There are no doubt many things that would have been interesting, but the filmmakers seem to have overlooked all of them. I waited for some suspense to build, for some surprise, but I waited in vain. Oh sure, Catch is traumatized by his accident, but we know that from the start. We also know from the start what the connection is between Catch and Sharon.

The problem with knowing everything in a movie from the start is that the movie then has nowhere to go, and “Angel Eyes” goes nowhere. Slowly. Luis Mandoki, who has no discernable style as a director (possibly hinted at by his track record, which includes “Message in a Bottle” and “When a Man Loves a Woman,” both fine examples of treacle in their own right) keeps the pace of the picture at an agonizing crawl. It is a wonder that anyone in the theater stays awake, what with absence of plot and the moribund dialogue. (Sharon is also trying to work through a twenty-year-old domestic dustup that should have been resolved long ago, but you can see better cop drama any Tuesday on “NYPD Blue.”) Catch (played by Jim Caviezel, who is capable of so much better), has apparently lost his razor along with his mind, as he wanders through the picture unshaven, and in a somnambulistic haze that makes it appear as though he truly is a Thorazine refugee. He shouldn’t make room for his Oscar yet. Lopez gets weepy enough on cue, but it is hard to escape the conclusion that she is an actress of extremely limited range. Even her highly vaunted star power is nowhere to be seen.

Granted, she is crippled by the dismal script. It may be that only a superior director, working with a superior script, can elicit a good performance from her. Neither is in evidence in “Angel Eyes.” What we are left with, then, is two boring and emotionally crippled losers who sort of meet, sort of fall in love, sort of share their pain, and then sort of drive off together. My advice is that you sort of avoid it. (5/22/2001)