If I have to deal with angels, I like it to be on the Wim Wenders wing tip – spectral, arty and existential. And I’ll take The Prophesy any day of the week. Otherwise, I have very little time for our fine feathered friends. But I do have a soft spot for 80s high-concept fantasy rom coms. What can I say, I love me some soft-focus glow, mythological creatures, and paper-thin premises.
Date with an Angel landed squarely in the middle of that trend, right at home with Splash, Mannequin, and Hello Again. But unlike some of its better-known counterparts, this one barely made a ripple. In fact, it bombed. Hard.
Directed by Tom McLoughlin, the man behind Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, it came out in 1987 under the collapsing banner of the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. This would be the last film DEG would release through their own distribution arm.
And to be perfectly honest, there’s no real cultural reevaluation to be done here. It didn’t get buried unfairly, and there’s no secret masterpiece lurking beneath the surface. But it does serve as a tidy time capsule of where the genre was at that moment, it’s a high-concept, high-stakes romance, shot through with soft-synth cues and yuppie optimism. It’s also notable as Emmanuelle Béart’s first English-language role, a footnote that would mean more if the film hadn’t disappeared so quickly from the public eye.
Michael E. Knight plays the lead, a music composer whose bachelor party ends with an angelic visitation, and Phoebe Cates is the obligatory jilted fiancée. There’s some subplot involving profit-hungry friends, media hysteria, and the usual fish-out-of-water antics that were already well-worn even in ’87. The cinematography, courtesy of Alex Thomson, adds some unearned elegance, and the score by Randy Kerber goes for a celestial-synth mood that perfectly fits the bill. It’s a movie that knows what it is, knows what it needs to do, and plays it absolutely safe. On paper, this could have been a surefire salvation for any studio on the verge of bankruptcy. Alas.
Date with an Angel may not be essential viewing, but it’s the kind of artefact I find fascinating. It’s from a time in pop cinema where angels, aliens, mannequins, demons, mermaids, and otherworldly girlfriends knew how to show you a good time. This was a viable box office bet. Unfortunately, DEG gambled on a wing and a prayer, and ended up falling from grace. -Pop