p-stepien A girl has a right to dream. At the beginning of the XX century not much else is guaranteed to a young and frail schoolchild. The wild and uncouth Angel (played by Romola Garai) however has a different outlook, as her dreams are not fantasies, but a prediction of the future. Immensely talented as a writer, despite shallow contempt to reading books, Angel is all-in-all a literary hack with an undeniable way with words and romance. At an early age she is discovered by a publisher Théo (Sam Neill), who becomes so fascinated with her writings, that he agrees to release her first book to critical and commercial acclaim. Angel uses the newly found fame and wealth to purchase her dream house Paradise, marry the man of her desires and become a larger than life as if straight from her novels...Francois Ozon tackles the whole movie with an unmistakable signature delving into the epoque with wit and charm encapsulated by the character of Angel. Multilayered and hard to crack she is presented as an alternative type of rebel without a cause, absolutely engulfed by her own brilliance, that she is unable to break out of her shell to take a gulp of reality. Once she molds her dream-life she seems to believe that this is the end of the story, her life has reached perfection and no further chapters need be written. However the barrier she builds around herself becomes a prison from where she struggles to see that her perfect life is more a projection of her expectations into reality than reality itself.All in all an interesting concept and to a point well contrived. At some stages the movie uses an absolutely pathetic excuse for backgrounds, i.e. while riding in a carriage across London we she varying landmarks of the city rudely apparent to be fake, to highlight the audacity of Angel's dream-life, as if taken from a romance novel. Nonetheless the movie falters in creating a mood to coincide with the premise of the story. Throughout the movie Angel is a hysterically overplayed and pretentious character, which draws multiple laughs in the most awkward situations, i.e. whilst reading her husband's eulogy or when drawing her last breath before death. This odes of course give the movie a certain whiff of freshness, as Angel's eccentrics really get you interested in her character (however unlikeable she may be). Nonetheless this was taken to such an extreme that at times I was unsure whether "Angel" is essentially a pastiche of costume dramas, with a by the numbers script full with often hilarious scenes, as if making fun of the whole genre and its dramatics.All in all an enjoyable movie, but the awkwardness of the permeating funniness of Angel and her undergoing together with the lack of clarity as to the intentions of the director make the eventual reaction to it a meandering mess of drama, comedy and rushed narrative.

Joseph Belanger A group of girls march in succession toward their daily lesson, both their step and their outfits similar in fashion, until one girl breaks from the mold and finds herself at the gates of paradise, forced to gaze from afar. The girl is Angel, the title character from French director, Francois Ozon's first venture into English-language film. Don't let the name fool you though; there is nothing remotely angelic about her. She is spoiled, loud and delusional – everything you want in a heroine you're supposed to root for and just the kind of person you want to see get everything they desire. Right?Angel is a writer, not a very good writer but people love her. She refuses to live in the real world in favor of the perfect illusion she believes she has crafted for herself. It all raises many questions about success and talent, sanity and vanity, but no matter how wickedly she is played by Romola Garai, the woman is too wretched to inspire sympathy in the viewer and Ozon does nothing to help.Ozon's past efforts range in form from ridiculous and satirical to contemplative and tragic. His transition into the realm of period drama is daring considering the smaller size of his previous works but he juggles the elements well. In fact, he balances back and forth between the elaborate costumes, grandiose sets and exaggerated performances so well that it all feels rather plain. Considering how allergic Angel was to the mundane, I don't think she would have been very pleased with this. And trust me, you wouldn't like her mad.

DICK STEEL Based on the novel by Elizabeth Taylor, this Francois Ozon directed movie was the closing film of the Berlin Film Festival last year, and while it played out like a biography of a fictional character, you can't help but to imagine how close it seemed to the flamboyance of the other Liz Taylor being infused into the titular character.Movies based on biographies, such as Miss Potter with Rene Zellweger and La Vie En Rose with Marion Cotillard, seem to follow a formula of rags to riches, and basically living the dream that no one had imagined was possible. Naturally, being blessed with a talent and a gift helps too, and with Angel Deverell (Romola Garai), hers was a steely resolve of wanting to break out of her poverty cycle through her writing, an aspiring novelist with limited life experience, relying solely on her vivid imagination to paint literary marvels with her firm grasp of language, constructing sentences like a wordsmith many times her age.What made her character compelling to watch and follow, is her living in a fantasy world she constructs for herself, which suits her perfectly as it provides for and fuels her imagination with romantic stories to enchant and endear herself to her readers. It shields her from her insecurities, but in doing so, she slowly isolates herself into her view of Paradise, and becomes a chronic liar, which I felt she's constantly aware of, but is ashamed to admit any stain in the perfect world.Delivered in two distinct acts, things start to change when she meets the Howe-Nevisons. Nora (Lucy Russell), probably her #1 fan who simply worships the ground she treads on, and offers to be her personal assistant, and her brother Esme (Michael Fassbender from 300 who said they'll fight in the shade!), with whom Angel falls head over heels for. And this stifling relationship takes a toil on all parties involved, with shades of possible lesbianism played down in the film (though I'm unsure what became of it in the novel). While Angel had her break from Theo (Sam Neill) the publisher who believed in her, Esme the aspiring painter has none, besides Angel who would probably say Yes to anything he says. And his portrait of her probably was the highlight for me in the movie. If a portrait painter needs to, and can peer directly into your innermost soul and bring whatever qualities he sees in you onto the canvas, then Esme would have succeeded with his god-ugly picture of Angel, reinforces meaning of being beautiful on the outside. but ugly on the inside.The special effects were quite badly done, and perhaps deliberately too, as it's made up of very obviously superimposed shots of backgrounds that no longer exist because of modernization. Other than that, the rest of the production values are high, and the costumes too which Angel decked herself in, are quite a sight to behold, especially when there's a call for a change in colours to reflect the mood of the story as it wore on.But what made this movie very palatable, is how Romola Garai carried the role through the story. You can just about believe the very naiveness and devil may care attitude that her Angel brings, however always seemingly able to hide and bury her true feelings deep within herself, and being a master manipulator also helped loads. Like how Charlotte Rampling's character of the publisher's wife reflected, you just can't help but to pity Angel, despite her pomp, flamboyance and hypocrisy.So if you're interesting in a movie that provides avenue for an intriguing study of a person putting on a very fake mask, then Angel, despite its title, will be the movie for you to examine human traits which are anything but angelic.

chris123 I know this is a movie based on a romance novel, so I wasn't really expecting much. I imported it because I'm a huge fan of Michael Fassbender and figured there's at least eye candy. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a female lead character as unsympathetic as Angel. It's not Romola Garai's fault. In fact, I have no doubt she played the part perfectly. The problem is that the part is written to be so selfish, stubborn, contrive and all-in-all annoying that I can't imagine anyone putting up with her at all. Sure, it's a movie; but there is suspension of disbelief, and there's just plain unbelievable, like the character interactions in this movie. The production values are great. I really liked the vivid colors, the contrasts and the whimsical travel sequences. But whenever the movie stays on Angel for any prolong period of time, I find myself wanting to smack her silly and wondering if I can stand watching more of her. If only they'd re-tuned the script to make her a little less abrasive. That's probably against the director's intention for the movie, but I think it would definitely have made it more enjoyable.