Angel Baby

Gritty endearing movie that rings true -- there are so many movies that are fables that tell us that mentally ill people are purer and wiser than the rest of us - like Russian village idiots --- this one tells us that they're real and complex people that ought to be loved but should'nt be left to manage their own treatmeant.

I was continuously moving towards my TV-set to help those two youths struggling to overcome their illness and trying to manage in a world who doesn't cope with their needs. Excellent acting from all parties. The film appealed to my rushing out to find someone to comfort. I'm an older grown-up, but I have never in my entire life been so moved by a movie. I loved it.

I saw Angel Baby by accident in the early hours of one morning, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

It is basically a modern day love story, with some tragic consequences. A seemingly normal but schizophrenic Harry sees the mentally unstable and superstitious Kate, and it is love at first sight for Harry, but Kate needs some convincing. Eventually the two are infatuated with each other and are caught up in a passionate relationship, and it all goes downhill from there for Kate and Harry.

Truly brilliant and emotional performances from John Lynch (Harry), and the truly beautiful Jacqueline McKenzie (Kate), with great support from Colin Friels as Harry's brother.

When I first saw this film, I felt torn apart by the complexity of love. In particular, the love that exists between the lead characters. It is hard enough in the "real world" for people to have a love without the interference of others.

In this film, the love story is exceptional. The two people have schizophrenia, an illness not of split personality, but of hallucinations that don't exist & voices that are heard but have no face.

So, under all this still lies the human need for love. And these two people find it. Pure & simplified. Until things start to go wrong again.

The challenges that faced the lead actors was to make believable both their love story & their illness. In particular, Jacqueline McKenzie is an amazing & articulate actor & remains true to her character's situation & beliefs throughout the film.

I decided to make a point of mentioning the film for it's true portrayal of a greatly misunderstood & yet common illness. For all the films about cancer, alcoholism & other illnesses, mental illnesses are still generally misunderstood & ignorantly ill-portrayed. Previous to "A Beautiful Mind", this is one of the films that portrays this illness both realistically beautifully, and for those reasons alone it can help people to understand more about an illness that most probably affects someone you know.

If you read the plot description of this film - two patients in a mental hospital fall in love, decide to move in together, one of them gets pregnant, and the two decide to go off medication for the baby's sake, with tragic results - you might think this is an American-type disease-of-the-week movie, but you'd be wrong. This is a tough and wrenching film which doesn't shy away from the tough questions. The ending is a puzzlement, because I'm not sure what it means, but other than that, this is powerful stuff. John Lynch and Jacqueline McKenzie deserve to be commended, as does writer-director Michael Rymer.