If you plan on watching "Angels in America" during a midweek night, get ready to call off work the next day. If you were to start the picture at 8 p.m., you wouldn't get done until two in the morning. Its a long one, but VERY interesting.

Director Mike Nichols (Working Girl, Postcards From the Edge) outdoes himself as an actor's director with this work, but it also shows his visual style leaves much to be desired.

"Angels in America" is based on Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning stageplay, same title. Kushner also penned the teleplay. It follows the personal stories of about seven major characters all connected by the strife of the times.

The basic premise, if I can sum it up in one paragraph, is...its 1986, God has abandoned heaven, the Reagans are in the White House and AIDS is growing at rampant proportions. One ailed individual named Prior Walter is abandoned by his lover, Louis, who cannot deal with death or his partner facing it.

Hugely connected lawyer Roy Cohn gets aids and spends his last days with flamboyant nurse Belize. Joe Pitt, Cohn's clerk, realizes he's gay, which throws wrenches into his marriage to Harper, his relationship with his mother and his beliefs as a Mormon.

Their personal problems are used as vehicles to relay Kushner's views on several national themes i.e. the sanctity of marriage, making human progress in an age where the world seems to be falling apart, the importance of the law in a time when human decency may be the better decision, and the like.

His statements are very well made and poetic. His characters are very punchy, even at their darkest doors. Scenes of emotional and physical agony are easier to watch, knowing what each character has going on inside. The creation is a masterpiece and is important to have on DVD or on film at all. Does it make a decent movie? I have to say, not really.

The dialogue of the production is what keeps the picture motivated. and the viewer interested in each character's next turn. However, with there being little story and few plot points to follow, this picture's success is left up to the dexterity of its audience.

I have to say, the picture must work better as a play, where lengthy monologues and emotionally driving long scenes can be tolerated. At some level, films are an art form for those with short attention spans, myself included. As soon as I start a movie, within one and a half hours to three hours, I unconsciously expect the story to be wrapped and a message delivered. When I walk in a theater to see a play, my attention span is kept in longer check.

However, as a play, "Angels in America" screams to be acted, and the work deserves to have a film made on it, if nothing else for history's sake.

The picture has no leak as far as acting goes. My favorite performances come from Justin Kirk (Love! Valour! Compassion!) as Pryer, who in my opinion has the most complex baggage to carry. Al Pacino (Heat) plays Cohn, a heartless bastard who sleeps with other men, but refuses to call himself a homosexual because the term is "beneath" him. I think when Pacino is at a ripe age and ready to leave his body of work, he may look back and consider this the role of his career.

Meryl Streep (Bridges of Madison County) plays Joe's mother. This is now one of my most favorite performances I've seen her give.

Hands down, the most memorable scenes involved Mary Louise-Parker (Red Dragon) as Joe's wife Harper, addicted to Valium and married to a man who has to close his eyes and imagine other men to make love to her. Louise-Parker absolutely defines herself as an actress in this role.

Jeffrey Wright (The Manchurian Candidate), who originated his role as Belize in AIA's Broadway production, is also extremely believable and utterly strong. In short, the performers knew exactly where to come from with the material. Most Nichols' directed pictures carry this same quality.

Unfortunately, with SO much money dumped into quality actors and uncountable feet of film, probably videotape, certain aspects of the picture, like visual effects, slip into the world of low budget hoakiness.

If your have a tolerance for these kind of long should-stay-a-play movies, than "Angels in America" should interest you. It may warm you up with its final message, spoken by Pryer, "I give you my blessing. More Life."

Benn - Where's the Humanity?