Luc Besson retells “It’s a Wonderful Life” in a entertaining and sexier way with “Angel-A”. I hadn’t even heard of the film before I saw it playing at the Atlantic Film Festival, but I was glad that I found it. With the story set in Paris and beautifully photographed in black and white, it features an odd couple of a small-time criminal and a beautiful angel who falls to earth to save him. It mixes drama with comedy and action and somehow manages to have a sentimental sweetness to it as well. I guess it would be a romantic comedy. A lot of fun with some great performances from Jamel Debbouze as the criminal and the impossibly beautiful Rie Rasmussen as the angel.

This film is worth watching just for the shots of Paris, the fixation with its bridges, and silouhettes. The actors are incredible, the story just balancing that line between sweet and cheesy, and the situations are out on a ledge.

It is a bit uneven, with slow parts, and creepy parts, and just plain weird parts.

But it’s beautiful, in more ways than one.