THE PREACHER'S WIFE (26)

Directed by: Penny Marshall

Starring: Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, Courtney B. Vance

The Pitch: An angel comes down from Heaven in response to an inner-city preacher's prayers.

Theo Sez: Who greenlights these things? Isn't it clear that the stars have nothing in common (beyond sharing their surnames with American cities) - that he's a reserved straight-arrow of tremendous natural dignity (which, with his goofy comic timing, almost saves the movie) whereas she's a larger-than-life glamour-queen (which, with her affected smugness, irrevocably sinks it)? Doesn't it make sense that if you're going to update THE BISHOP'S WIFE you have to update the morality as well - that it's unintentionally funny to see the film get into a first-class tizzy about the possibility of its heroine having an affair (because well, I mean to say she's a married woman after all) when it hasn't even shown us an illicit kiss? Above all, can audiences really be expected to go along with plotting so paper-thin, allowing the characters' problems to be magically - and arbitrarily - solved just in time for the heartwarming climax (and could someone please explain how the little kid who's been sent to a foster home can somehow be returned to the family fold from one moment to the next, and without, apparently, even going to court?)? One for the "Touched by an Angel" crowd, subsisting on a diet of treacle and Whitney Houston numbers ; possibly better if seen over Christmas - or, alternatively, not seen at all.