Angel Eyes

I have to admit two things, one is that I'm not a big Jennifer Lopez fan. Secondly, she's very good in this film. The film opens at the scene of a car accident and a female police officer (Lopez) is telling the survivor who is all banged up that everything will be okay and to look at her. Then the film shifts to a year later and Officer Sharon Pogue is a Chicago cop who doesn't relate well to others except other cops and hates the whole dating process. While in a diner with her fellow officers she notices a man (James Caviezel) across the street looking at her and then suddenly a car drives by and starts shooting the place up. Sharon takes chase after the car crashes and chases a youth down into a secluded area when she is ambushed and the youth gets her gun and is ready to kill her when out of the blue the man who was staring comes out and saves her.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

Later in a bar she meets him again and talks to him. She asks him his name and all he says is "Catch". She's intrigued by him and he says he likes her but he says very little about himself. He wanders the streets a lot and also helps a handicapped woman named Elanora (Shirley Knight) with groceries. Meanwhile, Sharon has family trouble and her parents (Sonia Braga and Victor Argo) are going to renew their vows and she's not sure if she should go. When she was a young girl she called the police on her abusive father when he was beating her mother and after all these years he still has not forgiven her.

This film was directed by Luis Mandoki who also has shown in earlier efforts that he has a good flair for portraying relationships with believable emotional attachments. The problem is the area of the story surrounding Catch. We know right from the get-go who he is and what he's hiding. The film goes just a tad too long and of course there is an upbeat ending. I think it would have been totally appropriate to have a more open ending with some questions on the future of the characters. But the film is enhanced by a very good performance by Lopez. Not only is she believable as a tough cop but we can understand her emotional problems dealing with others. Its a performance that rings true and reminded me of why so many people are intrigued by her. Her character is the core of the film (not Catch) and she does a terrific job of balancing her emotions between the tough cop and the lonely and vulnerable woman. This isn't a great film by any stretch of the imagination but it is an underrated one. One of Lopez's shining moments.