To cut to the chase, this is a mediocre film with an unbelievably bad ending: Meg Ryan dies. Now, if you still are interested, read on.

A lot of critics are doubtlessly sharpening their knives to skewer this film, billed as an adaptation of Wim Wenders' classic "Wings of Desire". The idea of such a stunt is itself laughably stupid, but pre-judging a film based on its pedigree is not a credible thing to do. Unfortunately for all involved, "City of Angels", even without any form of comparison with Wenders' film, is a sorry piece of slush cinema designed to infuriate intelligent audiences and insult less discerning ones.

Seth (Nicholas Cage) is an angel, a "messenger" who collects souls of dying humans as they depart from their mortal coil. Curious about life, and wondrous about being alive, he often questions Cassiel (Andre Braugher), a fellow angel, and the two muse about "life". The early part of the film is promising because it retains a languid, slow pace reminiscent of European cinema - takes it time to tell its story, and lingers on the feeling and content without words. When Seth meets Maggie Rice (Meg Ryan), a perky surgeon of some sort, operating on his latest collection, he is smitten by her. Following her around, he realizes she's one of those doctors who care too much and who believe she can best the forces of death as far as her patients are concerned - in real life, we call this a God complex, but in this film, the makers would have you believe that she's a really nice, caring person.

Once Seth meets Maggie and begins to romance her, the whole film falls apart. Writer Dana Stevens, who was also responsible for the largely uneven "Blink", has the characters say some of the dumbest things ever heard onscreen. The audience I saw the film with howled with derisive laughter now and then when Seth and Maggie make the kind of small talk which the filmmakers hope will send audiences into fits of romantic frenzy, but which is so laughably awful as to inspire gasps of disbelief instead.

Over the course of two hours (which feel more like two and three quarters), nothing much happens - which, ordinarily, is fine, except that in this case, it really feels irrelevant and pedestrian. The relationship which the filmmakers try to build never materializes because there is hardly any dramatic tension in the story. Angel meets girl, falls in love, vice versa and - what? Recognizing this shortcoming, the filmmakers decide on a final plot twist that is so stupid, it deserves to serve as the classic "how not to end your film" example. After Seth chooses to "fall" and become human to be with Maggie, she gets involved in an accident and dies. There, I've told you. The folks at Warner Brothers don't want you to know this because this ending totally contradicts everything else that has come before: Seth celebrating the notion of life, and what it means to be human is dealt a cruel hand by having the reason for his sacrifice taken from him - trust me, I make it sound a lot classier and intelligent than it plays. The scene is tacked on for no particular reason, and is, quite obviously, a crass attempt to milk some tear ducts in the hopes of inspiring repeated viewing amongst the folk who've seen "Titanic" x number of times.

Director Brad Silberling's "Casper" had the kind of emotional content one did not expect from a children's film, and it is easy to see why he was given this assignment. To his credit, he gives the film a slick look and a comfortable pace. However, he also stages some scenes in inexplicably humorous ways, eliciting a lot of unintended laughs. A few attempts at witty comedy fall flat because he plays them too broadly, whilst moments of emotional climax are undercut by cheap humor. Wildly uneven, he leaves the actors floundering.

Nicholas Cage adopts a veneer of placid calm here; it's as if he believes that playing an angel means speaking as if he's half asleep. When Seth becomes human, Cage veers into over-acting, resulting in a performance that relies mostly on his hang-dog expression and charm. Ryan, in a role many think she cannot play, does well. She doesn't manage to lose her irritating perkiness, but it is apparent that she tries hard to give Maggie an emotional center. In spite of her efforts, the character comes across shallow and without any motivation for any of her actions. Dennis Franz hams it up as a patient (the Peter Falk role), whilst Andre Braugher severely underplays the role of Cassiel. All of them seem to have been done in by the director's approach to the material, and none of the performances strike anything beyond a cursory note.

The only thing this film has to recommend itself is John Seale's stunning cinematography. Visually arresting, every frame of this film is bathed with the kind of soft lighting that shrieks out "love story", all to no avail. Gabriel Yared's score, which reminded me of Madonna's new album (melodic strings combined with techno beats), works well for the most part, and serves as an interesting distraction from the tepid on-goings of the plot. What a pity the talents of these two were used to salvage such an unworthy film.

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