ennifer Lopez has made all the right moves - in more ways than one. After starting out as a dancer on the television show In Living Color, her move into feature films was a relatively smooth transition.

  Her first big break came when she landed the lead role in the bio pic Selena, where she sizzled on screen. Then Steven Soderbergh cast Lopez opposite George Clooney in Out of Sight. The role suited her natural Bronx-girl toughness to a T. Whatever steam she picked up working with Soderbergh and Clooney seemed to increase her confidence.

  And she's made some interesting choices. In last year's sci-fi film The Cell, that tough/vulnerable quality helped Lopez pull off a good performance in a critically maligned film, holding her own against the two Vinces: - Vince Vaughn and Vincent D'Onofrio - both strong actors.

  For her next movie, the romantic-thriller Angel Eyes, Lopez returns to the kind of role that seems to suit her best. She's playing another tough cookie, this time a cop named Sharon 
actors
Jennifer Lopez
James Caviezel

director
Luis Mandoki

locations
Toronto, Ont.
Chicago, IL.

outtake
Aaron Eckhart (Erin Brockovich) was originally signed to
do Angel Eyes, but dropped out because he was "dissatisfied" with changes to the script. He was replaced by James Caviezel.

Pogue. Through unusual circumstances she meets and falls in love with Catch Lambert, played by James Caviezel (Pay It Forward, The Thin Red Line), a man recovering from his own nightmare. Lambert saw his wife and son die in a car accident.

  It turns out that Pogue has a secret of her own - childhood abuse - that she's been quiet about all these years. But as she opens up to her relationship with the traumatized Catch, her own pain begins to resurface. Did fate bring these two together? Just in the nick of time a man shows up who declares himself to be her guardian angel.

  Angel Eyes plays to everyone's strengths. This is a team with a whole lot of experience. It was directed by Luis Mandoki (When A Man Loves a Woman) and co-written by Gerard DiPego (Message in a Bottle) and Michael Seitzman (Here on Earth).
- Karen Gordon