Angels In America

Drama, Fantasy

Al Pacino	Roy Cohn
Meryl Streep	The Rabbi/Hannah Pitt/Ethel Rosenberg/The Angel of Australia
Emma Thompson	Nurse Emily/Homeless Woman/The Angel of America
Mary-Louise Parker	Harper Pitt
Justin Kirk	Prior Walter/Leatherman in the Park
Jeffrey Wright	Mr. Lies/Belize/The Angel of Europe
Ben Shenkman	Louis Ironson/The Angel of Oceania
Patrick Wilson	Joe Pitt
Brian Markinson	Martin Heller
James Cromwell	Henry - Roy's Doctor
Melissa Wilder	Louis's Sister
Fatima Da Silva	Cousin Doris (as Fatima DaSilva)
Florence Kastriner	Louis' Mother
Howard Pinhasik	Louis' Father
David Zayas	Super

Director	Mike Nichols
Producer	Celia Costas
Writer	Tony Kushner

Tony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in America became 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