Rating: 
Summary: A Fascinating Hot House of a Movie
Review: What a teriffic film. It takes place in Victorian England at the country home of Sir Harald Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp), an aging, wealthy aristocrat who is fascinated by insects and the new theories of Charles Darwin. The estate has lots of insects. He has a pale, plump wife, a silly, beautiful daughter, Eugenia Alabaster (Patsy Kensit) and a supercilious, arrogant son, Edgar Alabaster (Douglas Henshall). Into this hothouse arrives William Anderson (Mark Rylance), a penniless explorer and entymologist, who is hired to catalogue Sir Harald's insect collection. Eventuallly Sir Harald dies, Anderson marries Eugenia, children are born, a nanny (Kristin Scott Thomas), as determined as an ant, takes care of the children, and...natural and unnatural selection becomes evident.
The actors are all first-rate. The movie has a stunning look, especially the costumes. The referencing to insects -- beautiful butterflies, single-minded ants, breeding queen bees -- isn't by accident. The movie actually has a satisfying ending, especially considering the secret Eugenia Alabaster shares with...well, no spoilers here.
One person said that the movie was like a cross between Merchant/Ivory and Tennessee Williams. Another wrote that it was like picking up a beautiful stone and finding nasty, squirming things underneath. True. It's a fascinating movie.
The DVD transfer is first-rate.
Rating:
Summary: Steamy & Sexy
Review: When a husband declares, "We're going to be so happy," to his new bride early on in any movie, it doesn't take Jeane Dixon to know there's trouble ahead. And trouble there is for this pair, an impoverished naturalist (Rylance), just returned to Victorian England after years spent up the Amazon studying insects, and his high-strung, aristocratic wife (Kensit). A tale of sexual passion and perfidy, Angels is a handsome costume drama based on A.S. Byatt's 1992 novel Morpho Eugenia. The naturalist, who is living off the generosity of a rich nobleman while cataloging the older man's insect collection, falls in love with and marries the man's daughter. Rylance soon finds himself studying at close range some two-legged specimens far nastier than any to be found among his beloved creepy crawlers. His new wife and her boorish brother (Henshall) harbor a Big Secret, one that most viewers will guess early on, but it takes Rylance several years (and nearly the entire film) to figure it out. The film's standout performance comes from Thomas (Four Weddings and a Funeral), who plays a poor relation of the rich family. Looking like a young Margaret Hamilton, she's the one who smartly sees Rylance for the true gentleman that he is and sets her bonnet for him. Steamy, sexy, and strangely satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: Steamy & Sexy
Review: When a husband declares, "We're going to be so happy," to his new bride early on in any movie, it doesn't take Jeane Dixon to know there's trouble ahead. And trouble there is for this pair, an impoverished naturalist (Rylance), just returned to Victorian England after years spent up the Amazon studying insects, and his high-strung, aristocratic wife (Kensit). A tale of sexual passion and perfidy, Angels is a handsome costume drama based on A.S. Byatt's 1992 novel Morpho Eugenia. The naturalist, who is living off the generosity of a rich nobleman while cataloging the older man's insect collection, falls in love with and marries the man's daughter. Rylance soon finds himself studying at close range some two-legged specimens far nastier than any to be found among his beloved creepy crawlers. His new wife and her boorish brother (Henshall) harbor a Big Secret, one that most viewers will guess early on, but it takes Rylance several years (and nearly the entire film) to figure it out. The film's standout performance comes from Thomas (Four Weddings and a Funeral), who plays a poor relation of the rich family. Looking like a young Margaret Hamilton, she's the one who smartly sees Rylance for the true gentleman that he is and sets her bonnet for him. Steamy, sexy, and strangely satisfying.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful, creepy, intellectual seven-layer feast
Review: You will not go hungry from watching this film. As you can read from the other customer reviews, there is something clever happening in every frame. It comes together in such a tidy, cohesive masterful package. Here is one small example: throughout the film, the humans are used as a metaphor for insects. That shows up in a multitude of ways. The costumes worn by Patty Kensit (fabulous!), the feeding and caring of the matriarch (the queen), the ugly dronish behavior of the son, the "house" making decisions (as in how worker bees in a hive make big decisions such as hatching a new queen, killing off a queen, swarming and the like), the lectures from the patriarch on how morality used to be a black and white issue (insect-like) and now is very gray due to scientific research,. etc. etc. The cast was first rate. They deliver their lines in that way that classicly trained actors do. Something that was not mentioned in the other reviews was the feel of this movie. There was a creepy undercurrent. This was manifested in the background music, the sets and scenes dwarfing the actors, and the sometimes stony (yet effective) way the actors moved about. I was reminded of Peter Greenaway's typical movie enviroment.
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