Customer Reviews

Where Angels Fear to Tread

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you did not know this film was directed by Charles Sturridge you would swear this was a Merchant/Ivory production - no small praise. This film is a comedy/tragedy based on Forster's first novel. As with all of Forster's novels, class distinctions and the situations which arise between them are the central focus of the film. Initially, what results from a newly widowed, young woman (Mirren), taking a trip to Italy and impulsively marrying the son of a local dentist, throws her staid inlaws into a tizzy, and makes for several comic scenes. However, when she has a child - the attempts of her inlaws to "save" the child from what they believe will be a poor upbringing has tragic consequences. All of the actors embody the characters as Forster must have envisioned ninety years ago - Judy Davis is especially good as the spinsterish Harriett and Barbara Jefford is an imposing Mrs. Herriton. Helen Mirren is luminous as the flightly, wayward Lilia and Giovanni Guidelli, as her handsome younger husband, is a perfectly likeable rogue. The relationship which develops throughout the film between Phillip, (Rupert Graves), and Caroline, (Helena Bonham-Carter), is a thing to behold! You don't even realize it is happening (and neither do they) until it's too late. Graves is especially good as Phillip - a young man who is drifting through his comfortable life - until this complicated situation arises and forces him to decide if he is going to let life happen to him or just watch it happen to others. The locations in England and Italy are exquisite and the pace of the film keeps you guessing. The final tragedy and ending are especially bittersweet. Just like real life, things aren't always resolved neatly - but out of all the messiness can come true understanding and forgiveness. A wonderful, hopeful film.

WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD got a bit lost in the shuffle of the film adaptations of E. M. Forster's novels that came out in the 1990s. Neither as much of a crowd-pleaser as A ROOM WITH A VIEW, as appealling to a gay audience at MAURICE, or as dignified and prestigious as A PASSAGE TO INDIA, this film instead featured the stars of each of the previous three Forster adaptations--Helena Bonham-Carter, Rupert Graves, and Judy Davis--and cast them very atypically in roles that seemed like poor fits for them each at the time but now in hindsight show off each of their considerable ranges. The widowed Lilia Herriton (the wonderful Helen Mirren, in a terrific performance) travels to Italy while chaperoning her younger neighbor Caroline Aboott (Bonham-Carter) on her first trip there, and marries a handsome young Italian man mostly to escape her interfering in-laws back in suburban London; they dispatch her brother-in-law Philip (Graves) to rescue her, but he is rebuffed by Lilia and her virile lover. But Lilia is miserable in her new mismatched marriage and dies soon after in childbirth; Philip and his puritanical sister Harriet (Davis) then return to Italy with Miss Abbott to get Lilia's baby at any cost. The story has often been classified as a comedy, despite the tragic deaths that occur in it, and the director, Charles Sturridge, plays up the comic elements of it considerably. Judy Davis dominates this film (as she does every film she's ever been in) with a raucous performance as a hysterical prude that is actually nicely shaded; while Bonham-Carter does much with the tough role of the unsteady Miss Abbott. Sturridge probably does not take as much advantage of the beautiful medieval towers of San Gimignano, where the work was filmed, as he should have, and relies too much on conversation (as might be expected from a director who has worked largely in television). But the film has nonetheless aged beautifully over the years (particularly since Davis's wild turn here is now less unexpected, and can be seen as more of a piece with her other later comic performances instead of as an aberration from her more subtle earlier dramatic work), and it deserves rediscovery in an American DVD version.

I'm always very much torn as to whether I should review the book or the movie in these cases, especially since I'm in an accute stage of E. M. Forster worship; but that in mind, let it be known that the book is possibly my favorite ever, truly incredible, and doubly remarkable considering that it was his first true novel. BUT HERE is the movie review: What a splendid film this is. The casting is really beyond perfect. It's wonderful to see Helena Bonham Carter flourishing in a role that is by no means based on being physically beautiful, but rather, emotionally and spiritually so. She and Rupert Graves are highly de-glamorized by the costume/make-up crew and it's spectacular to see them shine through as wonderful personalities *without* their movie-star looks. Rupert Graves is quite brilliant; he portrays a man with (in Forster's words) "a sense of beauty and a sense of humour" but with no sense of life. As the story goes on you watch him waking up to the world around him, and by the end he is no longer the same person: a really wonderful and moving transformation. Judy Davis is superb as well; "acrid and indissoluable," snapping to an Italian landlady, "I don't care for the lot of you, I'm English!" The film is fantastic all in all: wonderfully paced, acted, shot. And it will move you to tears at the end.

This filmed version of WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD is quite faithful to the novel. It is well acted especially by the three female leads - Helen Mirren as the doomed Lilia, Helena Bonham-Carter, looking less attractive than usual, playing the sensible parson's daughter, Caroline, and Judy Davis as the truly horrid spinster Harriet. As in the short novel the contrast between the restrained, judgmental Brits and the passionate warm hearted Italians is a main focus of the story. Perhaps the film deserves more than three stars but like in the book I find the tragic climax caused by the inept meddling of Harriet so maddening that is greatly lessens my enjoyment of the story. To make matters worse Gino's ability to forgive these awful Brits sickens rather than uplifts me. I actually feel guilty for laughing at the genuinely funny moments at the beginning of the story after the awfulness occurrs. And I take another star off because the film really needs to be subtitled due to the soft tones of the speakers as well as the British and Italian accents difficult for American ears to fully understand.

Where Angels Fear to Tread

"Where Angels Fear to Tread" is based upon the classic E.M. Forster novel and features an all-star cast. Directed by Charles Sturridge, this production is full of subtlety and imagery. While this classic has flown under the radar, it's now available on DVD for many more people to enjoy.

The setting, like many of Forster's novels, is Edwardian England. That is contrasted against a sun-drenched Italian countryside that acts as an escape for many characters. The cinematography is used expertly to highlight the smoke in the train station, the light in the air, the feeling of travel, and so many other indescribable feelings.

Helen Mirren is wonderful as a widow well past middle age who strikes out on her own path against the norms of society and her well-off family. She escapes to Italy for a passionate love affair that produces a child. Her family wants to retrieve her and her baby from Italy but tragedy intervenes. Her family goes to Italy ready to reclaim their kin only to be set off course.

Helena Bonham Carter is also a standout as Caroline. She too is romanced in her journey to Italy by both man and country.

The story unfolds with twists and turns that allows the characters to come to life in a way seldom seen on film. Forster's world view is carried to film seamlessly.

So many English novels have been brought to film in the past 20 years, its refreshing to see it done so well and respectfully as in this movie. Where Angels Fear to Tread (Penguin Classics) This is a very good movie that leave you wondering why you never saw it before.

Enjoy!!!!

Fans of the better known "Forsters" such as Maurice, A Room with a View, the works of Merchant and Ivory, and fairly similar A Passage to India, may be quite disappointed with this much more quiet and less colourful production. The story-line also offers less of a twist - this is EM Forster's first novel and he was still learning his trade. Still the movie is well worth seeing - the story and the beautiful images in dusky sepias as if taken from old photographs will keep enthralled you in front of the telly if only you can accept that the world changed immensely within the last century. A big bonus is a chance to see world-famous actors in roles not exactly identical with their current careers.

Most of E. M. Forster's novels on film have a sense of lightness that the world of tragedy may only peripherally intrude upon. But in WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD, director Charles Sturridge presents first an Edwardian England, then a song-filled Italy, where the elements of tragedy are introduced ever so slowly so that if one has not first read the novel, then one might be forgiven for thinking that this one too might end up with a fluffified ending. Helen Mirren is Lilia, a forty something widow whose wealthy inlaws can't understand why she is not content to sit back in England and ossify herself. Her ex-inlaws are merciless in insisting that she show the proper respect by not re-establishing a new life. But re-establish it she does by vacationing in Italy where she has the gross fortune to find a man (Gino, played by Giovanni Guidelli)whom she believes she loves. She complicates matters by marrying him and then bearing his child. At this point, Sturridge faithfully nudges the action toward irrevocable tragedy. Lilia's inlaws determine to "fix" things by going to Italy to bring back Lilia's baby to be raised in England. One simply does not plan such a heartless act unless the script hints at an unhappy closure. By midpicture, Lilia unexpectedly dies, leaving her baby with a father who is alternately charming, then caddish. Gino plays the brute controller of Lilia while she lives and does not hide his infidelities. Later Lilia's ex-inlaw siblings (Harriet as Judy Davis and Thomas Wheatley as Phillip), arrive in Italy with a full head of steam only to be derailed by the charm that is Gino and the infectious musicality of Italy. Helena Bonham Carter is Caroline, who also travels to Italy for the same baby-snatching purpose and is similarly derailed by falling in love with Gino. Sturridge ends the film on a series of jarring notes with each one peeling back the onion layers of character that come into sharp focus as the film progresses. Some (like Caroline) change for the better and become more self-aware even at the price of a broken heart. Others (like Harriet)for the worse. And still others (like Gino) drift back and forth from conviviality to boorishness in a manner that leaves one gasping at the thinness of his character. When the closing credits hit the screen, Forster's tragic vision of life as a muddle has been indelibly etched on the viewer's mind, leaving that viewer with no choice but to seek elsewhere in the Forster canon to find a lighter vision of self. WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD is a terrific film that ought not be missed.

If you have not seen this little gem based on E.M Forster's first published novel then you are in for a treat. An excellent story adapted to fit the screen perfectly with sublime performances from Rupert Graves and Judy Davis. A very fine series of moments. Go ahead treat yourself to a bit of class.

While I am a huge fan of period costume movies and British literature, I must confess that this adaptation of Forster's novel has me stymied. A Passage to India and Howards End are beautiful, fluid films that masterfully balance the comedic and tragic aspects of Forster's work in a way that makes them accessable to everyone whether or not they've ever read one of his novels. Not so with the unbalanced and scitzophrenic Where Angels Fear to Tread--a movie that cannot seem to decide if it's a lush romance with a hint of comedy, or a grim, cynical satire of Edwardian morals. The first half comes along nicely with the wonderful Helen Mirren as an English widow who embarks on a trip to Italy and subsequently scandalizes her stuffed-up family by marrying one of the local boys. He's 21, she's in her forties. But when things start to go wrong for the new lovers, so too does the movie. Mirren's lover cannot be pinned down. One minute he seems to want her for her money. Then he seems to really love her. Then he adopts a brutish attidtude and roughs her up. One has the sense that the novel would have explained things better, but the movie's approach to character makes everyone's motives seem murky.
This is especially apparent in the second half when Mirren dies in childbirth and her repugnantly stuck-up family decides that the baby should be taken from its father and brought back to England. Here the plot becomes murky as Helena Bonham Carter (playing Ms. Abbot, Mirren's former traveling companion) beats Rupert Graves and Judy Davis (playing Mirren's brother and sister-in-law respectively) back to Italy to begin coercing the father into surrendering the child. How she thinks she can get away with adopting the baby herself is never explained and doesn't make sense. She's not family and Graves, Mirren's brother by marriage, is a lawyer who could easily sue her. The relationship between Graves and Bonham Carter's characters is not fleshed out enough for us to decide on their relationship to one another. She seems to be in love with him for half the movie but he's such a wet noodle mama's boy we can't see why. It's also hard to decide if Graves' character is as evil as the rest of his family (his mother is the one who decides to essentially buy the child from its father as though it were a painting not a person) or if, as the film seems to suggest, he longs to break free and be his own man. Anyone who would entertain stealing another man's child--especially after witnessing first hand how much the child is loved by its father--is morally bancrupt, but when Davis' character kidnaps the child he goes along with it even after we've been led to believe, by his stirring speeches about wanting to "be somebody", that he's become a better person.
WARNING: SPOILERS!
Uneven characters and badly excecuted plot points aside, the movie might have skated by simply on the rapturously beautiful cinematography and the occassional deep speech about human nature by Bonham Carter or Mirren, both of whom could make a dog-food commercial seem stirring. However, when the contested baby dies during the kidnapping, the event which ought to be the shattering point for Graves' conflicted character and for the entire Edwardian superiority complex he and Davis have so honored the length of the film....nothing happens. The father beats Graves up, then Bonham Carter induces them to drink some milk together and make friends. Hello! You people are responsible for the death of a beloved child! A little milk is not going to cut it! And yet, for some nebulous reason, it does. In Howards End Leonard Bast was killed just for impregnating a noblewoman. If he's killed a noble woman's child, the result should have been even worse. But at the end of the movie no one seems to feel very guilty and Bonham Carter even says that the child's father doesn't really care about the death either, even though his pure love for the child has given our misguided protagonists their biggest conflict.
I have not read the novel, but if it is as convoluted and uneven as the film, it comes as no surprise that Forster's other novels--and their subsequent film adaptations--are better known.

I thought with the great cast this was sure to be enjoyable. Sadly all the great acting in the world, the sublime scenery of Tuscany, and the beautiful cinematography couldn't stitch together the patchy characterisation and gaps in the storyline. I must read the book to see if I can work out what went wrong. It just didn't work for me.