Descending Angel

It really is a shame, as "Descending Angel" is a very good film...but by the end of the movie, it degenerates into a stupid action flick. Up until then, I really enjoyed it and wanted more and more.

Michael (Eric Roberts) is engaged to Irina (Diane Lane). So it's not surprising that she is taking him home to introduce to her father, Florian (George C. Scott). Florian seems like a swell guy...which makes it all the weirder when a stranger approaches Michael and tells him his prospective father-in-law is a war criminal! At first, he doesn't believe it....but over time he comes to realize that the father is a monster.

Up until the big confrontation scenes near the end, the story was excellent. But there were two huge problems. First, Irina's reaction AND Michael's reaction to her reaction came off as hard to believe at best. Second, and more importantly, the ending is simply stupid. Despite Florian being a dangerous character with very dangerous friends, Michael deals with this in the silliest and unbelievable manner...so much that my daughter and I found ourselves laughing. Sad...it could have been wonderful...instead, it's a flawed but watchable film...with good performances by Roberts (who, oddly, is cast third even though he is THE star) and Scott.

By the way, the opening credits are very explicit...and you see a LOT of DIane Lane. Odd, as the rest of the film has no nudity at all and it did seem out of place.

I actually didn't think that "Descending Angel," a 1990 production for HBO, was too awful, and I don't see what was historically inaccurate about it, referring back to a review on this site.

Eric Roberts plays Michael Rossi, who wants to marry Irinia Stroia (Diane Lane). They travel to the Stroia home to meet Irinia's formidable father Florian (George C. Scott) who is prominent in the community.

It doesn't take long for Michael to be told by a survivor of a Romanian concentration camp that Florian was a Nazi collaborator, something the family denies.

Disturbed, Michael investigates and learns that Florian was a member of the Iron Guard and responsible for the murders of men, women, and children. Confronted with this, Irinia is unable to accept the truth.

A review on this site said Romania was on the side of the Allies - well, that was at the end. Of all those joined with Nazi Germany, Romania was responsible for the deaths of more Jews than any country other than Germany itself.

It's true that their alliance with the Allies probably did shorten the war and save many lives. The Iron Guard made the harsh anti-Semitic legislation worse and enacted legislation directed against minority businessmen.

The acting is very good, with Eric Roberts giving a passionate performance, George C. Scott is fine as the guarded and stern Stroia, and a young Diane Lane is lovely as a woman torn between devotion to her father and accepting the reality of his past.

The end was abrupt and strange. The film did have some tense moments.

It's not as good as "The Music Box" but it's okay.

I am of the opinion that this film has an undeserved reputation as "underdeveloped." The better description of the feel of this film lies closer to "stark" or "lean" rather than "limited." I find Descending Angel better in many ways than The Music Box, which explores similar themes (although Jessica Lange and Armand Mueller Stahl are excellent in the latter film). One point of contrast that I find falls fully in Descending Angel's favor is that Roberts, unlike Lange, does not suddenly jet off to Eastern Europe in pursuit of "the truth." The chickens come home to roost messily in the United States, and give the film a nasty political edge I find compelling. I give it 8/10 for cable fare. Roberts, Lane, and Scott are enough reason to see this piece. Some of the scenes between Roberts and Scott are among the most compelling confrontations between past actions and present morals as have been filmed in the 1990s. If you liked True Colors or Storyville, you'll like this one too.

In Descending Angel, Diane Lane comes from Romanian descent. Her father, George C. Scott, immigrated to America after WWII, and he's a very powerful member of the community. When she brings her fully American fiancé, Eric Roberts, to meet him, there's quite a bit of tension. Eric not only sees her in a different role, that of doting child, but he has to absorb a completely different culture. And, to make things more complicated, he senses that George has a shady past - even though his "sense" only comes from one disgruntled man and everyone else he talks to, including a priest, backs up George's character.

Eric Roberts' character just wasn't likable. He's reckless, smug, and naïve, thinking he can double-cross a very powerful man in the community and get away with it. Without having even one-tenth of the full information, he forms a judgmental opinion and runs with it. He automatically assumes George is a villain, and he does undercover dirty work to try to expose what he believes and turn Diane against her family. Who does he think he is? He's an outsider who doesn't understand the Romanian culture or Diane's relationship to her family. Diane has a great line when she disagrees with his behavior: "What are you, the conscience of the world? When did you care about (*all this*) before?" She asks why he's acting this way, knowing he's deliberately destroying their relationship. Eric responds, "Because it's right." According to whom, I ask? Eric is the interloper, a virtual stranger who makes it his mission to take away a daughter from her father. He claims George is trying to dominate, isolate, and control Diane, but isn't that exactly what he's doing?

I was surprised by the relatively graphic nature of the bedroom scenes, given that this was a television movie made in 1990. Those who still see Diane as the little girl from A Little Romance might feel uncomfortable as she sheds her clothes and rolls around with her costar. I liked her 1980s hairstyle, and I appreciated George's attempt at a Romanian accent, but that was about it. I wouldn't recommend this movie, as the ending is especially disappointing to those who had the patience to sit through the entire running time.

Eric Roberts plays the fiance of Diane Lane who discovers some unpleasant realities about his future father in law played by George C Scott. While the premise, exposing a nazi collaborator, is a good one, the film never really builds any suspense. On a scale of one to ten.. 6