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Since it’s just a rehashed amalgam of It’s a Wonderful Life and Wings of Desire (with a little Girl on the Bridge thrown in), it’s surprising Luc Besson’s heavenly love story Angel-A works at all. It’s compelling largely due to its appealing cast—Jamel Debbouze as a lowlife American in Paris who’s in debt to every thug on the street, and Rie Rasmussen as the angel in slut garb sent to save him the moment he’s about to jump into the Seine. Besson shoots the movie in lush Cinemascope black and white, as much a love letter to the city as anything in Paris, Je T’aime. For these reasons, it’s easy to enjoy this metaphysical chatfest despite its cornball core, even when it morphs from a noir to a hokey romance. Angel-A is an odd bit of optimistic whimsy for Besson, a change of pace that makes you wonder if the movie’s glaring derivations of previous angel fantasies didn’t usurp his own original voice.

John Tomason