Angel in Training

Once in a great while, a film comes along that completely redefines how you think about American cinema. That film may very well be "Angel in Training." First off, the acting is wonderful. The daughter is a gem, but the real show-stealer is the actual angel in training, Danielle Pessis. She often feeds the protagonist important nuggets of wisdom regarding being the "perfect age," something all teenagers can understand when they hear it from a space angel who shoots balls of light from her hands and uses the force to throw food at people. Gary Imhoff is great as the father character as well, who reminds me of the dad from Seventh Heaven mixed with Jon Arbuckle from Garfield.

From a purely technical standpoint, the movie is brilliant. It introduces a new technique that, despite the film being released for nearly a decade, still has not been widely used at this point (I have no idea why). Essentially, the director often uses voice-overs and flashbacks of things that happened within the last 15 minutes so that the viewers won't forget about them. There are also two or three wacky and hilarious sound effects, all of which appear in the last ten minutes of running time (if you don't count the five minute long montage that recaps the entire film at the end).

But really, what do things like acting and directing matter if the movie's got no heart? Well, don't worry about that here; "Angel in Training" has got so much heart that yours is likely to burst from your chest cavity and ruin all your limited edition "Spy Cat" cels. If you don't think this is the feel-good movie of a lifetime, then... well, you'd better watch it! So in conclusion, I highly recommend watching "Angel in Training" not once, but a dozen times. It will only get better.

My father used to tell me, "A great movie is only great if it has dead people and cartoonists." Think about it.

Its a fine cute story and the demographic it's made for is pretty young but it sets out what it wants to accomplish. Also the young cast can act just fine. Solid direction as well.

Desi is a girl who's mother has passed on and shes just hit puberty. She is somewhat of a Tomboy and feels a tad left out as her friends have just started wearing makeup and girlie clothes. Her father is a cartoonist trying hard to make a living. The story is a happy family Saturday movie with a great moral about how an angel helps her deal with some unpleasant people (including her dads new girlfriend). Includes some great food fights, great quotes, and makes an excellent family movie. A tad on the bad acting 80s boring, but there is always the entertainment laughing at their clothes and big hair. Keep an eye out for Mrs Morningside and her great but not always intelligible quotes.

This is a cute family movie. An angel sees a 13-year-old girl having a tough time with her life. She gets sent to earth to help this just-reaching-puberty girl learn to appreciate her life, and her changing body (with her mother having died years before). The angel becomes a good friend, and tells her supportive things. This part of the movie is powerfully good.

Her friends at school are becoming boy-crazy, while she remains somewhat of a tom-boy, with a good friend who happens to be a boy. Things come to a head when she is invited to a birthday party (but only if she comes with a boy, yuck). This film portrays (quite well) the mixed bag of feelings a girl can go through.

Her father is a cartoonist, and sort-of falls for an extremely self-centered woman, who promises him to get his comic strip syndicated nationally. The parts with the girlfriend are almost cartoon-ish with some slap-stick humor (better for the kids to enjoy).

I have watched this several times over a few years. It holds up well. All-in-all, a pretty good hour-and-a-half.

This is a movie that's aimed mainly at a young audience, but it deals with some mature themes, like the loss of a parent and entering into adolescence. Although it is a low budget film, I think it is a good family film, in large part because of the performances, particularly the lead actress Laila Dagher. She shows great maturity and subtlety in her work for a child actress. I hope Hollywood casting agents take note and put her in more projects.