The basic premise is that a down-on-his-luck, suicidal man named Andre is visited by an earth-bound angel (named Angela--get it, GET IT?), who proceeds to turn his life around in dramatic fashion--all in the course of a day or so. In the process, the two fall in love, despite the fact that she's not really human.

The characters are really not too appealing overall. Andre is a small-time weasel whose business has something to do with olive oil--we are never really told why he needed to borrow so much money, what he did with it, or why we're supposed to give a crap. Angela has intentionally come to Earth in the form of a "slut", for reasons unknown, and basically proceeds to solve Andre's problems by giving him endless pep talks about how wonderful he is, and sleeping with most of Paris at $500 a pop to earn the money he needs to pay off his creditors. Soon thereafter Andre begins to fall for her. Now, is it just me, or does the relationship seem more than a bit one-sided?

The film is shot in black and white, and has been hailed as some type of loving cinematic portrait of Paris. But we found the film's locations to be touristy and unoriginal to a ridiculous extent. The film's two characters literally stand in front of or outside of every major tourist attraction in the entire city: Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, The Eiffel Tower, etc. It was as if the director bought a cheapo pack of postcards from a souvenir shop at the Paris airport and decided to use them in place of storyboards. Nearly everything about this film is just too obvious, as if we need to be beaten over the head to get it. "DUH, the Eiffel Tower, they must be in Paris!" Even the film's title, "Angel-A", is too obvious. Wouldn't "Angela" have sufficed? Even that would have been too obvious, but they had to add that hyphen in there just in case anyone in the audience was mentally retarded and needed that extra clue.

And the ending is no exception. I don't want to spoil it for you--if that's possible--but it's pretty much as syrupy as it gets--the final simplistic cliché to tie up the whole package. My advice? If you want to see a fun, funny, and yes, syrupy love story between a mortal man and a woman from another dimension of sorts, go re-watch "Splash". Want a cute story about an angel who comes back to Earth to help someone to turn his life around? Try "The Heavenly Kid"--it's syrupville for sure, but a fun 80s romp nonetheless. "Angel-A", however, has nothing new to offer--other than perhaps the world's first non-violent martial artist prostitute angel slut? Why?