The Face of an Angel (2015) Review!!

Synopsis – Both a journalist and a documentary filmmaker chase the story of a murder and its prime suspect.

My Take – This film is one of its kind, even with the presence of its compelling plot & great cast, the film falters on every level! Producing a film revolving around the trial of Amanda Knox for the murder of Meredith Kercher, may seem like a outrageous attempt to cut through a subject which polarizes opinion like no other. In reality, the ‘headlining’ murder is that of Meredith Kercher, more well known to the public as the trial of Amanda Knox. The film is not a reenactment of the media’s coverage of this case, rather a creative interpretation told through the eyes of a journalist Simone and documentary maker named Thomas as he chases the story as it unfolds. Yet, with so many loose ends, so many unanswered questions, and so much sensationalist journalism. Whether it be a documentary, or dramatization is a moot point, but there is a serious movie to be made. Director Mike Winterbottom‘s calamitous and self-indulgent effort isn’t it. To tackle this subject properly would demand a very courageous film-maker, but Winterbottom ducks all the issues. Instead of focusing the film on dedicating the film in the memory of Meredith Kercher or the murder trial, the film shamelessly uses the case as hook on which to hang a rather shabby and unedifying story about a director going through some sort of mid-life crisis whilst researching his latest movie about an English student murdered in Sienna. Not Perugia?

No, because this movie fictionalizes the whole case, changing names and places but keeping enough parallels as to leave us in no doubt. Insulting because the director is too silly to confront any of the issues thrown up by the real events. The story follows fictional director Thomas (Daniel Brühl) who after a long yet successful career break comes to Sienna to shoot a documentary around the murder trial of exchange student Jessica Fuller (Genevieve Gaunt). Along to help him around the city is Simone Ford (Kate Beckinsale), a renowned journalist who he begins an affair with. While strolling around the city to find out more details on the case, Thomas meets Melanie (Cara Delevingne), an English ex-pat student cum bar maid. Whose influence sends him more spiraling down. What a self-indulgent mess this movie is. The central character, Thomas, appears to have had a personality by-pass. He seems to be haunted and pained by something, but what? Is his marriage on the rocks? If it is, we have little sympathy for him as he manages to bed at least two of the female characters during his stay in Sienna. He hangs around the place, snorting line after line, getting everyone’s backs up, and interacting with Siennese lowlife characters straight from Central Casting. Just about every character in this movie is not only one dimensional but either unsympathetic or unlikable. When watching this film you wanted to get a picture or idea of who Miss M Kercher was like. But you feel let down that it is just a few scenes that don’t really establish that. Perhaps it was a ploy by Winterbottom to highlight the fact that she was murdered. Furthermore you wanted to discover more about the accused and the background of the investigation but the audience was only given second hand anecdotal quips and hearsay from characters garnered from meetings in public houses. I wonder if Thomas’ pursuit of the truth to the murder (as he gets more directly involved with the solution to the case by trying to locate the knives) is what inspires the drug use and silly CGI scenes as a reflection that he was falling into the same unimportant issues that everyone else is. I think his longing for his daughter also parallels the loss that the Kercher family was feeling. Thomas’ strife with other journalists may also be a sign that he did not like the opinions of other writers because they were focused on the case and the girl on trial but not on the girl who died.

The film is based on a book named Angel Face by Barbie Latza Nadeau & probably the greatest mystery, then, is why she has allowed Winterbotton and screenwriter Paul Viragh to even claim that their sub-Antonioni nonsense is based on her book. And to add insult to injury, the character of Simone Ford (Kate Beckinsale) in the story is a less than flattering portrait of Nadeau. I guess there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I have no idea what this movie is trying to do or say other than urge us to read Dante’s Divine Comedy. The references to this text in the movie are, frankly, ludicrous as are the CGI effects that accompany them. t is unfortunate that the film gives very little concern to the ongoing trial almost as an afterthought. The film spends too much time on Daniel Bruhl‘s character or more accurately lack thereof. Daniel Bruhl can act but in this role he seemed so detached that maybe it was the drugs or maybe there was a lack of empathy for the role. Kate Beckinsale looks great, but this film can easily be credited as her most under rated role ever. The one ray of light is the acting debut of Cara Delevingne. One suspects that she is not so much acting as just being herself. If so, she must be great fun to be around. The fact that she looks so child-like imbues the relationship between Melanie and Thomas it makes one feel slightly uncomfortable. If I had to guess then I would say that only if the film had to tried to tell us that the truth of the story was not the thing that people should be focused on but that a beautiful young girl who was loved and had a happy life was lost, this film would have worked! On the whole, ‘The Face of an Angel‘ is one of the most incredibly boring & fake out attempt to cash in on a real life incident. It’s such a shame that there was so much talent and production values. That there may be a good movie in the all of the footage that was shot but they probably forgot to include it. I really hoped that this film would get better but it didn’t.