Michael

John Travolta plays an angel who smokes, guzzles beer, romances women, and (no doubt because it’s Travolta) dances. Two washed-up reporters from a Chicago-based tabloid (William Hurt and Robert Pastorelli) are sent off to Iowa by their boss (Bob Hoskins) to write a story about him with the help of a dog trainer posing as an angel expert (Andie MacDowell). Before this turns to total mush, it’s a quirky, fitfully effective fantasy (1996) periodically enlivened by the cast. Producer-director-cowriter Nora Ephron is still learning how to make moviesafter proving in Sleepless in Seattle that she could hit pay dirt without knowingbut by now she’s at least able to slide her players over the weak parts of her scripts. Her cowriters this time around are her sister Delia, Pete Dexter, and Jim Quinlan. (JR)

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