Scottsdale International Film Festival Movie Review.Talk about taking your time to get to Arizona, this film was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival back in February of 2007 where it was nominated for a Golden Bear. Anyway thanks to the Scottsdale Festival team for finally dragging it to the desert as it was a very interesting movie.
While not every movie I see is along the lines of Star Trek, Terminator or Pandorum nevertheless this was still an unusual pick for me and that's why I love film festivals so much. It is very unlikely I would have seen this on a Big Screen if it had been released normally simply due to the choice of films we are faced with every week. I am glad I caught Angel at a theater as director Ozon has created a particularly English film (for a French director) that ranks up there with some of the better BBC produced costume dramas.
The film itself is an adaptation of a 1957 Elizabeth Taylor novel who also penned the story that became the 2005 movie Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont. It was directed by Francois Ozon who was at the helm of the sultry French picture Swimming Pool (one of my personal favorites) and the movie that seemed to star all of France's famous actresses, 8 Femmes. In these three films women are the lead characters and he enjoys casting strong and interesting actresses. Charlotte Rampling who starred in Swimming Pool appears again here in Angel but it is the relatively new face of Romola Garai portraying a famous author Angel Deverell who dominates this movie with a performance that was certainly compelling if not wholly convincing.
We first meet Angel Deverell growing up in modest surroundings above the grocery store her mother runs in a small English town. As an adolescent she shuns friendships for her passion to become a famous writer of sensational romances. When her first book is published as a teenager she begins a career of prolific writing that soon sees her escape the life she never felt she was meant to lead. Marriage to the love of her life follows but so does misery as he enlists to fight in the Great War. Her husband Esmé a self-loathing artist whose dark paintings are the polar opposite of his wife's writing is played with aplomb by Michael Fassbender who some of you will have seen playing Lt. Archie Hicox in Inglorious Basterds this summer. When Esmé returns from the War with severe injuries their marriage suffers further still and Angel, unable to write her frothy romances, begins a descent into solitude, isolation and eventual tragedy.
This was such an interesting film for me for a number of reasons. Ozon does a fine job of recreating a believable Edwardian England with characters that seemed based in reality all offering a sharp contrast to the sometimes clownishly eccentric Angel. Garai takes on the lead role with a terrific confidence and for the majority of the film plays the arrogant young woman just right but in the last half as Angel's life begins to crumble so does the portrayal we were previously enjoying. Frankly it has to be down to Ozon as the director but Angel's growing eccentricities were laughable, not in a believable way but instead you wondered if he had received an urgent call and had to let someone else finish off the movie. Garai ended up looking more like a Goth teen than a grieving and sick widow which was an utter distraction during some of the more emotional scenes. The passing of time seemed to have been totally ignored and while Angel became whiter at the end she looked just as young as the adolescent we met at the beginning of the film. You could argue that this is just being picky and it's true it didn't take anything away from the story but it was pretty hard to ignore.
Sam Neill as Angels publisher and Lucy Russel playing Angel's confident and unrequited suitor were both very good in supporting roles but this was clearly Romola Garai's movie. I read that the actress considers the film to be her best work to date but she is only 27 and there will undoubtedly be much better roles for her in the future.
It was an up and down film for me. At times stirring with the sense you were watching a salute to some of the great epic period movies made in the 1950s and 1960s but then at times it seemed like it had lost it's way and even confidence in itself. I would certainly say this is a good movie to rent if you enjoy this period of English history just don't expect a classic.
Rating ***
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