Reviewed by Michael Edwards
Stars Romola Garai, Sam Neill, Michael Fassbender,
Lucy Russell, Charlotte Rampling, Jacqueline Tong,
Janine Duvitski, Christopher Benjamin, Tom Georgeson
Written by Martin Crimp, François Ozon
Certification UK 15
Runtime 134 minutes
Directed by François Ozon
An English period drama based on a novel about the life of a fictional fiction writer that parodies the trends in womens fiction of the early twentieth century, directed by a Frenchman. Does it get more pretentious than this? Oh, wait, it has Romola Garai (of Dirty Dancing 2) in it, so probably yes. But this is no bad thing. From it's high-flown premise the film actually takes off into an exuberantly playful extravaganza of Edwardian costume, sumptuous balls, and a marvelously overblown prima donna performance by Ms Garai.
The story starts us off with precocious young child Angel Deverell. She hates her life as the daughter of a widowed mother, surviving off of the meagre produce of their tiny grocery story in a drab town in the midlands and spends all of her time living or writing about the fantasy worlds she inhabits. One day her confidence pays off and her work is published, and she begins the life she always yearned for. But is it all it's cracked up to be? Of course the answer is no, and therein lies the meat of this movie.
The intrusion of war into her fantasy lifestyle provides the a critique of the escapism embodied in the work of the many authoresses like Angel Deverell, and her love for a misunderstood artist provides the podium for a debate on the merits of sticking to ones own artistic values. Ms Deverell is the whipping girl for all of these critiques, much toned down from the original novel, but somehow still draws a little sympathy. This is the the credit of Ozon, whose decision to do so may be more accurately attributed to his affect for his "muse" Romola Garai than an attempt to keep the audience on board.
Overall it is a clever, moving and visually stunning period film that is only occasionally hampered by a spot of mistranslation on the part of Ozon. Well worth a watch.
• Angel at IMDb