Angel Eyes

With as many simple-minded movies as there are these days, it's tempting to laud anything that tries to do something different. But the unfortunate truth is that there are just as many movies that may be too ambitious for their own good, such as "Angel Eyes."

To its credit, this odd little dramatic hybrid attempts to address a couple of tricky subjects — among them, spousal abuse. But it fails to broach any of them in more than a superficial fashion.

Despite its intriguing set-up and other storytelling ambitions, the movie quickly turns predictable, which wouldn't be such a bad thing if the dialogue wasn't so painfully clichŽd.

The meaning of the film's title isn't really made clear, but it evidently refers to Sharon Pogue (Jennifer Lopez), a Chi- cago policewoman having both personal and professional problems. In fact, the one real bright spot in her existence seems to be Catch (Jim Caviezel), a mysterious stranger who saves her life and then finds himself irresistibly drawn to the troubled cop.

To Sharon, Catch seems too good to be true — he's kind, gentle and willing to overlook her character flaws. But he's also something of a puzzle — when asked about his past, he seems either unable or unwilling to confront it (though he is haunted by images of a family and has drawers full of children's toys).

At the same time, Sharon also has to deal with her family, including her abused and too-forgiving mother (Sonia Braga), a brother (Jeremy Sisto) threatening to continue the cycle of violence and a father (Victor Argo) who wants nothing to do with her.

Despite some initial promise, this is another bad teaming of director Luis Mandoki and screenwriter Gerald DiPego, who misfired with the 1999 adaptation of the best-seller "Message in a Bottle."

For one thing, Mandoki concentrates on stylistic flourishes (the police scenes are shot in dizzying "shaky-cam" style) and lets the pacing lag, while DiPego's dialogue is so clichŽ-ridden it's almost laughable.

As for the stars, Lopez and Caviezel have an odd chemistry that works in the scenes they share. But in individual moments, neither fares very well.

In particular, Lopez still doesn't have the range to pull off her emotional scenes (she comes off as rather frigid), while Caviezel doesn't seem to be giving the material his best effort.

"Angel Eyes" is rated R for violence (gunfire and a disturbing vehicular collision), occasional use of strong profanity and crude sexual slang terms, a brief sex scene and brief gore. Running time: 103 minutes.

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