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Angel Eyes (2001)

Rate: 4
Viewed: 5/04, 10/14

AEy
10/14: Angel Eyes is a weepy Lifetime Movie of the Week that's both awkward and cringeworthy.

I don't know what made it embarrassing to watch: the script, the performances, or the direction. Perhaps it's been all of them. Basically, Angel Eyes is about two screwed-up people who meet each other by destiny and find new ways to be more screwed-up. Some of my favorite lines are:

"I think cops are pretty great, you know."

"Oh, I was trying to picture you without your clothes on."

"Let's talk about something stupid."

"So we...smell each other."

"I almost wet myself."

Fascinating stuff...it's Oscar material for sure. Jennifer Lopez is an able actress and does the best as she can. She survives the awkward scenes with grace. But it's Jim Caviezel who's too weird. The reality is he was unable to dig deeply to become the character he needed to be: a mentally damaged figure. That's why Jennifer Lopez couldn't bring her best to the table. Both are incapable of displaying the appropriate emotions. Hence, I blame the director and whoever made the casting choices. Classical training is what's necessary for it to work.

What's strange about Catch is he acts like he's the most special person in the world because he lost his family in an automobile accident. At the same time, it seems a ploy which is an appeal for pity in order to trap Pogo into having to take care of him for life. Meanwhile, Terrence Howard's character is awful and says the grossest things. That's a big misfire there because his support should've been utilized to give the picture a much needed balance. Damn, Sônia Braga has aged a lot in ten years.

There are two subplots that make logic hard to swallow. The first is it's okay for the father to beat up his wife, but it's not okay for their daughter cop to arrest him for domestic violence. Yet he decides to disavow her because what she did was wrong. Okey dokey. The second is the brother can give his wife a shiner, but it's not okay for the daughter cop to say something about it. That's terrific. Men's problems are special...I now get it.

By the way, looking at the tall monument during one of the scenes, I was like, "Hm...how can that be? A cop saves a man in Chicago with a tower in the background?" I should know because I've been up the CN Tower before which is located in Toronto.

All in all, Angel Eyes is embarrassing to watch during the first hour but is saved in the last forty minutes from turning into a total train wreck.