Stars: Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, Marie-Louise Parker, James Cromwell, Jeffrey Wright, James Cromwell

Director: Mike Nichols

Summary: An adaptation of a stage play which interconnects the lives of several people affected by the AIDS crisis, spiritual experiences and the Reagan administration. These people are visited by an Angel who crashes through the roof insisting he's a prophet.

In transferring Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play to the small screen, director Mike Nichols has crafted a profound, ambitious masterpiece. The film follows a sprawling group of characters as they navigate their way through the cutthroat New York City of the 1980s, when AIDS began to rear its ugly head. Getting sicker by the minute, Prior Walter is abandoned by his tormented lover, Louis (Ben Shenkman); deluded lawyer Roy Cohn (Al Pacino) is visited by Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep), a woman he helped to condemn; and the pill-popping Harper (Mary-Louis Parker) is on the verge of losing her sanity when she realises that her husband, Joe (Patrick Wilson), is a closet homosexual.
Like the best works of art, Nichols' production doesn't merely reflect a particular chapter in America's history. It floats deeper, into a world where everyday feelings are elevated to a spiritual realm. Already hailed as a modern classic, ANGELS IN AMERICA is one of the medium's crowning achievements.

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Tony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in Americabecame the defining US theatrical event of the 1990s, an astonishing mix of philosophy, politics, and vibrant gay soap opera that summed up the Reagan era for an entire generation of theatre-goers. Post-9/11 would seem to be too late for a film version--philosophy and politics don't always age well--but this 2003 HBO adaptation, ably directed by Mike Nichols, provides a time capsule of the '80s and reveals the deep emotional subcurrents that will give the play lasting power.

The story centers around Prior Walter (Justin Kirk) and Louis Ironson (Ben Shenkman), a gay couple that falls apart when Prior grows ill as a result of AIDS. But cancer is not the only thing invading Prior's life: He begins to have religious visions of an angel (Emma Thompson) announcing that he is a prophet. Louis, who doesn't cope well with disease and suggestions of mortality, leaves and starts a relationship with Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson), a closeted Mormon who works for Roy Cohn (Al Pacino)--the real-life right-wing lawyer, notorious for his ruthless behind-the-scenes machinations. Add in Joe's depressed and hallucinating wife Harper (Mary Louise Parker), his determined but open-minded mother Hannah (Meryl Streep), a fierce drag queen/nurse named Belize (Jeffrey Wright, reprising his celebrated performance from the Broadway production), and you've still only begun to discover the wealth of characters and storylines in Kushner's ambitious work.

The powerhouse cast (also featuring James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, and Simon Callow) is uniformly superb. The script has its weaknesses--some of the fantastic elements, including Prior's journey to Heaven towards the end, fall flat--but even what doesn't work is bristling with ideas and a ferocious desire to capture human existence in this time and place. --Bret Fetzer

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	2003
Release Date:	September 13, 2004
Runtime:	375 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 025281
Keywords:	Angels, America, Two, General, Wide, Screen, Tv, Drama, Discs, Rescheduled
Genre:	Drama