Angel Eyes (R, 2001)

Jennifer Lopez plays Sharon, a cop who is fearless on the streets but not ready to get close to anyone. As she tells one guy when he tries to get to know her over dinner, "I'm not very good at the whole dating thing," She goes home to her apartment and lies on her bed in her bulletproof vest. One day, just as an assailant is about to shoot Sharon, a mysterious stranger (Jim Caviezel) arrives to save her life. She is surprised to find herself drawn to him even though he tells her nothing about himself. All he will tell her is that his name is Catch. Sharon investigates and interrogates people for a living. She is not sure how much it is fair to expect to learn about someone in a relationship, so she does not push. In fact, it gives her some breathing room because she does not feel crowded by questions about her own past. She finds something freeing about a relationship between people who have only the present.

Watch out -- they're trying to sell ANGEL EYES as a thriller with supernatural overtones, but it turns out that it is a very traditional love story, and a surprisingly touching one, too. The connection between the Sharon and Catch will be a mystery only to those people who have never seen a movie. But there is an appealing lightness and even a little wisdom the way their relationship unfolds. Sharon calls Catch and when he answers she tells him to hang up so that she can call his machine. She is not comfortable enough to talk to him directly, but at least she is able to tell him that.

Sharon and Catch both have to accept their pasts before they can face the future together. Although it is terrifying, they have to be honest with themselves before they can really be close to each other. Both blame themselves for family tragedies, and both have to accept that it is all right to go on from that. The movie has the great good sense to leave things a little messy. Maybe Jennifer Lopez should stick with playing cops. This is her best performance since she played a marshall in Out of Sight. Caviezel, following roles in Frequency and Pay it Forward, seems to be the current go-to guy for playing "guys weird stuff happens to." Screenwriter Gerald DePego and director Luis Mandoki show us the warm, easy connection between Sharon and Catch, and they make it clear that love alone is not the cure, just the motive to allow yourself to heal.