City of Angels

(Warner)

Brad Silberling's film is not so much a remake of Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire (1998) as it is a tribute. In both films a guardian angel falls in love with a woman and decides to become human so he can be with her. Wenders is dark, heavy, and poetic; Silberling is light, funny, more Hollywood. But City of Angels recaptures the beauty at the heart of the original and has some powerful images of its own. With Nicolas Cage as the angel Seth and Meg Ryan as the object of his desire.