A smarty-pants comedy that outsmarts itself. It tells of your basic disgruntled ex-employee who storms the boss's office with a gun (ha-ha) to demand his job back, but who comes away instead with the boss's daughter as a hostage and without actually killing anyone. The bigger joke (ha-ha-ha) is, or is supposed to be, that the daughter is more intent than her abductor on collecting a ransom, and must assume command. A pair of angels (yes, angels), dispatched to Earth to play Cupid to the couple, manage to get themselves hired on as trackers and go-betweens, despite the pre-existence of a fearsome security force. In short: director Danny Boyle and writer John Hodge (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting) meet Frank Capra. Ewan McGregor, as the decidedly uncool kidnapper, comes up with some ticklingly eccentric line-readings, though he can't keep pace in that department with the multiple-personality dialects of Holly Hunter as one of the angels. The movie's one good laugh is extracted brutally from the spectacle of Hunter -- or stuntwoman or mannequin -- clinging tenaciously to the outside of the getaway car. Cameron Diaz, meantime, as the second half of the romantic couple, sets the dominant tone of the movie: strenuously cute. The claymation cartoon during the closing credits is final proof of the filmmakers' reluctance to let go of your pants cuff. Delroy Lindo, Ian Holm, Dan Hedaya. (1997) — Duncan Shepherd