I did my research before seeing “City of Angels.” I watched Montel on Friday, when he had show about angels. Seems everyone has an angel or two guarding over them.

According to Montel’s guest, angels are purely spiritual beings who were never human or part of the physical world. They are eternal and are completely androgynous.

The movie “City of Angels” gets most of the facts right, except the androgyny part. How much fun would the movie be if angels didn’t get a little horny? Nicholas Cage stars as Seth, an angel who falls in love with Dr. Maggie Rice (Meg Ryan).

Maggie is in despair because she loses a patient early in the film. Seth comforts her without being seen, as we are led to believe angels are always doing, all the time for everyone.

I found the first part of this movie kind of creepy. We see hundreds of angels dressed in long black coats following people. In another movie, Seth’s following of Maggie would be called stalking.

Angels are all over, watching us all the time. I find this a little disturbing. After all, there are things I do, things you do, we don’t want anyone to see. Especially divine entities.

Little personal hygiene things we all do when we’re alone. You don’t need specifics — you know what I mean.

Once “City of Angels” finally gets past this stalking section, I started to enjoy it more. Eventually, Maggie is able to see Seth.

He then must decide whether or not to give up being an angel and fall to Earth to be with Maggie. Hmm … give up eternity to spend a lifetime with Meg Ryan? I personally wouldn’t have to think twice about that one.

Ryan is wonderful as Maggie. Sunny and perky or troubled and in despair, she plays the character just right.

Plus, the image of her drinking a Rolling Rock in the bubble bath has reinforced it as my favorite brand of beer. Cage is good as the angel Seth, but he does seem to overdo the doe-eyed wonderment routine a little bit.

Dennis Franz also turns in a nice performance as an angel who chose to fall to Earth years ago. He becomes Seth’s guide and friend as he lives life to the fullest by eating waffles and skinny dipping in the ocean.

I’m not going to give you specifics about the rest of the movie because I don’t want to spoil things for anyone. I will say this much, though — the last 10 minutes of “City of Angels” almost ruined the entire movie for me.

Something happens that just made me want to shout “What!?” and demand answers from the movie. Sure, give the movie 10 points for the non-Hollywood ending, but minus several hundred for (it’s a secret).

You’ll either react the way I did or, judging from the number of people I heard sniffling around me in the theater and the many people I saw drying red, puffy eyes in the lobby after the credits rolled, you’ll be moved to the point of crying.

Very few movies have ever made me cry. “Parenthood” makes me tear up a bit. I cried at the end of “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.” (In my defense, I must say I was extremely sick and tanked up on NyQuil.)

“City of Angels” did choke me up a little at the end, but more than anything it made me mad. And speaking of the end, this movie doesn’t really end, it just stops.

The credits start to roll, and instead of jumping up like most people usually do, the entire audience just sat there, probably thinking to themselves, “you mean that’s it?”

“City of Angels” is an odd movie, to say the least. The film moves slowly, but the story is involving, almost captivating at times. It hits a few wrong notes along the way, but is an overall enjoyable time at the movies. Make sure you bring a handkerchief to dry your eyes.

(Finally, I have to mention this quickly. In the movie, Meg Ryan has a line about removing a tick from her dog, and she says something about “flaming tick heads.” The only reason I bring it up is I think The Flaming Tickheads would be a great name for a band.)

3 1/2 stars out of five

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Mike Milik is a senior in advertising from West Des Moines.