Movie Info
After the box-office success of Phenomenon, John Travolta continued to charm audiences with this 1996 comedy-fantasy in which he plays a grubby...(read more...)
angel who's got one last good deed to do before heading back to heaven. Living peacefully in the rural Iowa home of an old, friendly motel owner (Jean Stapleton), the winged Michael (Travolta) is hardly the image of a perfect angel. He's scruffy, unshaven, eats sweetened cereal by the box-full and chain-smokes all day long. But when tabloid reporters (William Hurt, Robert Pastorelli) learn of Michael's alleged existence and head to Iowa to check him out, Michael soon realizes that it's his task to see that Hurt falls in love with an "angel expert" (Andie MacDowell) and breaks free from his habitually cynical attitude. There's more to the story, of course (and Chasing Amy fans will recognize Joey Lauren Adams as a waitress who charms the angel), but Michael is more about the effect that this enchanting angel has on the earthbound humans around him. Whether he's chipping away at Hurt's skepticism or attracting a crowd of women on a truck-stop dance floor, Michael is an enchanting figure, and Travolta plays him with just the right tone of humor, reverence, and effervescent charm. Sure, it's lightweight fluff, but director Nora Ephron specializes in lightweight fluff, and Michael is the kind of feel-good movie that never wears out its welcome. --Jeff Shannon
Director:
Nora Ephron
MPAA: PG
Running Time: 106 min.
Release Date: Dec 25, 1996
Cast:
Andie MacDowell,
Bob Hoskins,
Carla Gugino,
Jean Stapleton,
Joey Lauren Adams,
John Travolta,
Robert Pastorelli,
Teri Garr,
Tom Hodges,
Wallace Langham,
William Hurt
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