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Wings of Desire Movie Review

Wings of Desire is a 1987 German romantic fantasy film directed by Wim Wennders and starring Bruno Gantz. It is a very overrated movie that is initially intriguing, but eventually tiresome.

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“And if mankind once loses its storyteller,

then it will lose its childhood“

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The film is about invisible, immortal angels who populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of its human inhabitants, comforting the distressed. Even though the city is densely populated, many of the people are isolated or estranged from their loved ones. One of the angels falls in love with a beautiful, lonely trapeze artist. The angel chooses to become mortal so that he can experience human sensory pleasures, ranging from enjoying food to touching a loved one, and so that he can discover human love with the trapeze artist.

The story is intriguing at first and the fantastical elements are fine, but the movie quickly became boring due to its overly slow pace and a ridiculously long runtime. The romantic elements were sweet, but the characters to me were quite a bit underdeveloped, resulting in the romance itself not being as amazing as it could have been.

Bruno Gantz is very good in the main role, but all of the others are forgettable. The main character is well realized, but that’s pretty much it as everybody else was far from interesting or well utilized. I wanted more from the supporting players.

Wings of Desire is definitely quite artistic in its gorgeous black-and-white cinematography and a wonderful score. The movie looks terrific due to some highly memorable imagery at display, especially as it regards framing and composition, both stupendously executed here. The photography is truly stunning and the film’s best asset undoubtedly.

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But I wish I could say the same about the script and the direction, both rather weak. The film is underwritten, the dialogue is extensive, but overall not as engaging as they had hoped it would be, and the movie simply is too long, clocking in at over two hours, resulting in a loss of interest to me at least. More energy and oomph was needed this time around as the film felt surprisingly lifeless for a movie about love and humanity.

Wings of Desire is initially intriguing in plot and its cinematography is gorgeous with arresting imagery throughout, but the movie is so slow and so long that it became a tiresome watch pretty quickly. For a sweet film about love and humanity, it is surprisingly lifeless.

My Rating – 3