Good Deeds

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

The accident is a bad one--mother and child dead, the father hanging on by a thread. It is Chicago policewoman Sharon Pogue (Jennifer Lopez) who talks the guy through, gives him back his life.

Roll opening credits, let some time pass, and we discover a man known only as "Catch" (Jim Caviezel) roaming the city's mean streets, doing good deeds, one of which consists of saving Sharon's life during a shoot-out. You know, of course, that he is the grieving accident victim, atoning for the beloved lives he thinks he has carelessly wasted. You can guess, can't you, that fate means they will fall in love--especially since Sharon's relationship with her family (father, mother, wife-beating brother) is as fractious as her would-be lover's was idyllic.

What you probably will never guess is that Angel Eyes is better than the plot makes it sound. Partly that's because the director, Luis Mandoki, who made the ghastly Message in a Bottle, balances the movie's sentiment with a good, tough view of a cop's life both on the job and (especially) off duty. He's good with the hard kidding in bars and junk-food emporiums. Mostly, though, the movie works because Lopez gives such a terrific performance. She's a vulnerable hard-ass, lonesome but damned if she'll admit it, forgiving in some relationships, unforgiving in others.

It's an intense, complex performance in unexpected circumstances. If it's occasionally undercut by a script that sometimes speaks when it should shut up, and by excessive recessiveness on Caviezel's part, it is still very much worth checking out.

--R.S.