Low Low Lopez (Angel Eyes (DVD))

Member Name: fooyoo

Product:	Angel Eyes (DVD)
Date:	18/07/04 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cast are easy on the eye

Disadvantages: Poor direction

There seems to be much talk about whether or not Queen Diva Jennifer Lopez can cut it as an actress. I have to say that I have watched her in a few films and not thought that she was terrible, and I could probably name another 10 well paid Hollywood actresses who I think are inferior to her. I am sure she will never win any Oscars, but she entertains, and that is what her job is, so up to now I have no complaints about her performance on the big screen, or in her parallel career as a singer. By no means am I her number one fan, but I find her pretty inoffensive, but anyway onto the film.

The film is a drama with a touch of romance, so by default does that make it a romantic drama, or a dramatic romance? You decide! On first glance, the cast list seems to be pretty promising, obviously the lead name is Lopez herself, and the male lead is Jim Caviezel, who most recently starred in 'The Count Of Monte Cristo'. Lopez plays Sharon Pogue, a policewoman working in Chicago. The film opens with what seems like a routine call out for Pogue, as she attends to an accident victim. To the viewer, there is nothing apparent about this scene, but later in the film it becomes a pivotal moment.

A year down the line, Pogue is then seen chasing a suspect who manages to ambush her, and she finds herself in a very dangerous predicament looking down the barrel of a gun, until a nameless stranger saves her life. We soon find out that the stranger is Catch (Caviezel). Catch is clearly an outcast, shunned by most people he comes into contact with because of his unsettling behaviour. He pursues Pogue, and she soon realises that he is the accident victim that she helped in the first scene of the film, and although they have nothing else in common, they share the bond of having experienced events on the n
ight of the accident.

Catch barely has any recollection of his life before the night of the accident, however during the course of his relationship with Sharon, he starts to remember more and more, which he has tried to block out because the memories are so painful, due to the fact his wife and child died in the accident. Instead, he has spent most of his time trying to do good things for people, but more often than not his actions are misinterpreted, and his offers of help rebuffed, because people completely misunderstand his intentions.

The relationship between the two characters is never really explored more than the obvious, and I found it quite hard to get to the bottom of why they both felt so strongly about each other, and the on screen chemistry between the two was clearly lacklustre, and this made the two characters look as puzzled as I was. The title of the film was never really explored more than the fact that Catch remembered Sharon's eyes before he closed his on the night of the accident, and in a way it left me feeling short changed, as the emotions and turmoil surrounding the lives of the two characters could have made way for some very emotional and dramatic scenes.

The plot was full of holes, and whilst the film tried to create a lot of dramatic tension, for me it just fell short, and limped along towards a very disappointing ending which felt very much like a cop out, and director Luis Mandoki must surely take most of the blame for this, as it was complete misdirection. There was romance, although too contrived to feel real, there was drama, but there was also the element of the film being a thriller, and in the end the whole thing had a very confused feel about it.

Lopez plays the character of Sharon Pogue well, and she shows the conflicting emotion of dealing with criminals in her job, whilst wrestling with the fact that her father is a wife be
ater, and has shunned her after she had him arrested for his violent behaviour. Caviezel is alright, nothing spectacular, and I wonder if he took on this role expecting it to be a guaranteed hit due to his co star, as I cannot believe that he read this script and thought it would win him many plaudits. There are many actors who can deliver a scene without speaking a word, but he is not one of them, and as Catch rarely speaks, you can see where the problems may arise.

I cannot recommend this film to you, as even the world famous Lopez cannot save this weak offering, which could have and should have been much more.

Summary: