Angels Crest

Angels Crest (2011)

** (out of 4)

A small community is ripped apart when a father (Thomas Dekker) is charged with negligent homicide after his three-year-old son dies. The two were out on a trip when the father decided to go check something out and leave the kid sleeping in the truck. The son managed to get out of the vehicle, get lost and the next day he is discovered dead. After the father is charged a whole group of people act differently to the events. I'm sure director Gaby Dellal had high hopes for this film and I'm sure the subject matter was something very close to her but she should have requested a re-write because the screenplay here is a complete mess that thinks it's something deep but at the end of the picture you realize that it's nothing but one shallow character and situation after another. There's no question that 100% of the blame must go towards the screenplay because every single one of the characters are shallow, boring and it's impossible to care for them. As I watched the movie I kept wondering what emotion I was supposed to be feeling, who was I supposed to be feeling it for and there are just scenes that take place, take you down one direction and then it just cuts off and you're sitting there wondering what the entire point was. We see the father struggle over guilt. Understandable. We learn that the child's mother is a worthless piece of drunk trash. There's a restaurant owner (Mira Sorvino) who has some of her own secrets. There's a lesbian couple who can't agree whether the dad is to blame. For some reason one of the lesbian's sons shows up and of course he hates gay people. There's even the father's best friend who just happens to be sleeping with the mother. All of these characters enter, say dialogue but you're never quite sure why they're there and in the end none of their stories come together for anything. You even have Jeremy Piven playing the D.A. who has his own past that he's hiding from. I'm sure the point of the film was to try and show what one event would have on a large group of people but the film is a complete failure. I will say that the opening ten-minutes were effect but this is due mostly to the subject matter. Seeing such a young kid die isn't easy to watch so of course it's going to be disturbing. Everything that follows is just one big mess. Performances are decent at best but you can tell they're drowning as it seems none of the actors know what to do and they appear to just go around without cause. ANGELS CREST has an interesting idea but sadly it goes nowhere and the film runs out of gas even before it can get going.

There is nothing challenging in the screenplay of this film, and the decision seems to have been taken to create a movie of a kind of easy access. It tries to treat a terrible occurrence in everyday lives, in a normal, small town community in those very terms, without making anything sensational.

The film deals with issues which are always relevant to so many people - loss, guilt, coping, addiction and, let me say kind of demonology perhaps in authority - in the most basic terms. Unlike similar kinds of films, this one never thinks it knows, never thinks it has to go beyond the fundamental realities of these situations in order to picture them well. For me, this leaves a lasting impression and means that I can think about these issues actually, much more easily than if I had not seen this film.

That's a rare occurrence in movies, to me. Usually I find that my mind is vacuumed by the end of a film, whether or not it was said to "deal with" issues or treat issues for discussion or awareness in the audience.

A nice, serious film which seems to present something of real life. Certainly of real life concerns, without patronising, feeling the need to suggest that life is more than life really is, nor getting lost in a fictional world of fantasies that have no real meaning for humans today.

There are twists, and the elements develop which allow the viewer to make conclusions for himself / herself. This then becomes the essence of this movie beyond the lovely cinematography, the latter becoming as an echo the expression of the ongoing, inexplicable beauty in life, a backdrop to the pain, struggles and torture.

Though the script is simple, with no pretensions or irrelevant ambitions, some viewers looking for something else may consider this a weakness in the film. For myself, it is a very strong point in a well crafted piece, from original idea, through very good, simple dramatic acting, to a full, beautiful, simple, understated presentation in the whole production.

Angel's Crest contains lots of pretty pictures with actors doing bland unmotivated performances. The director spent too much time perfecting the setting instead of working on developing the characters. It was just a lousy adaptation of the novel. Half of the supporting characters should have been left out, so they could have given the main characters something to do besides drinking, smoking, and slowly walking around. Law & Order episodes can do more in 44 minutes than this movie did in 2 hours. Jeremy Piven barely had time to do anything; it felt like he shot his part in two days or something. Lynn Collins was gross and not much else.

It's a pretty looking waste of time that didn't earn it's ending. A typical not-good-enough-for-a-real-release Magnolia presentation.

All the great vistas and quality cinematography, can't make up for the lackluster production and direction of this film. Thomas Dekker looks more like he should be playing Gerard Way in the "My Chemical Romance" story, than a grease monkey in a hillbilly town.

Then you have the textbook lesbian couple seen in almost all movies made in the past 10 years. Juxtaposed with the overtly religious mother with the alcoholic daughter, this story seems more like it's trying to please a film school students liberal teacher.

No heroes, no anti-heroes. No moral, no point.

Everyone seems to be in a rut here. No rhyme or reason.

A better name for this would be "Shit Happens".

Nice to see Mira Sorvino. I can't understand why she did this though. No opportunities for her to shine in this, but she plays her role well.

Same goes for Jeremy Piven, though in his case he should fire his agent. He's a great actor, and plays his part well, but seems constrained by the script and/or director.

Not bad, but not good either.

Simple story with no twist or purpose really. Thousands of kids go missing every year and this story just reminds those families how easy it can happen. The film tells a simple tragic story with little to no entertainment value. Story line is thin, acting in most cases questionable and direction amateurish. Would we watch it again - No. Not retained for future viewing.