Michael

I'm not exactly sure what kind of New Age crack Nora Ephron has been smoking, but "Michael" verges on being "irresponsibly" bad. John Travolta portrays Michael, an angel on his last journey to Earth, sent to brighten up the fear-filled and workaday lives of William Hurt and Andie MacDowell. Travolta saves the film from being a total loss, but the rest is a flaccid, smarmy, ingratiating treasure trove of heartstring-tugging cliches. With each line, we get the feeling we've been here before: the fallen, dirty angel? Seen it. The wizened, crusty yet benign journalist? A million times. The girl whose heart has been broken one times too many? "Yawn." Nora Ephron, who wrote the delightful "When Harry Met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle" should damn-well know pathos from bathos by now.

—Ian Williams

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