Angels Crest

Didn't know the outcome but was hoping for redemption in this Alaska winter movie. It's got to be tough living those cold winters. Beside the slow pace, the bleakness didn't make for happiness. Added to that is the Hollywood requirement of a single blasphemy of Jesus whose love the movie could sure have used.

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.

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.

I am Paul Wayment's sister and this movie doesn't even remotely resemble my brother's life... It was a cowardly attempt to write a story and present it in a way that cheaply takes pieces out of a horrific real life situation and pass it off as cinema.

The story of my brother Paul and his son Gage is heart breaking...and teaches human frailties and timeless lessons. Please don't compare this piece of trash to my brother's tragedy. The Pulitzer Prize written story about Paul Wayment is a more accurate piece than what was loosely written in a book or screenplay. A story as haunting as my brother's needs to be told as a true story. There are countless lessons to be drawn but this movie takes a powerful story and destroys any good that could have come from it. Sorry hated it.

This is a realistic and heart wrenching movie about loss and imperfection. Anyone with children has had a moment where you turn your back or look away and when you turn back there is a total sense of panic when you don't know if your child is safe. This father makes a big error in judgement, but that isn't what this movie is about. It's about the fragile connections we have with other people, the way people (even the district attorney) try to make sense out of the senseless things in life. Like in life, there is a tragedy that touches many lives and it can't be dealt with by just assigning blame to someone. The actors all did a beautiful job of portraying the complicated emotions people have when dealing with loss.