Product Description

Canadian filmmaker Scott Smith directs the black comedy Falling Angels, based on the novel by Barbara Gowdy and adapted for the screen by poet and author Esta Spalding. Set in the late '60s and filmed on-location in Saskatchewan, this dark family drama focuses on the three teenaged daughters of the Field household. Callum Keith Rennie plays Jim Field, the loud-mouthed, domineering patriarch who has intimidated his wife Mary (Miranda Richardson) into a catatonic state of alcoholism and depression. Norma (Monté Gagné) is the oldest, most responsible daughter; she is overburdened and preoccupied by events from the past. Middle child Lou (Katharine Isabelle) chooses the rebellious path in order to escape her father's unreasonable demands. Youngest daughter Sandy (Kristin Adams) aspires to maximum femininity, engaging in an affair with an older, married man (Mark McKinney) in the process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100860 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-01-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 109 minutes

Review
Successfully adapting Canadian author Barbara Gowdy's 1990 novel, Falling Angels is a dysfunctional-family tale that confirms soph helmer Scott Smith as a keen observer of character drama, particularly in the realm of teenage turmoil. Set in late-1960s Toronto suburbia, pic deftly balances elements of pathos, humor and the grotesque while maintaining a low-key tenor. That artful restraint might actually hinder theatrical exposure, as selling points are not obvious or easily encapsulated. However, topliner Miranda Richardson's presence should help, in tandem with good reviews and better word-of-mouth wherever feature gains a foothold. Ancillary prospects, particularly in broadcast, should be brisk. Esta Spalding's expert screenplay compresses some story elements, but otherwise remains true to the book in both plot and tone. It's 1969, but the counterculture hasn't yet reached the protags' tidy 'burb -- a fact that especially irks Lou (Katherine Isabelle), most outwardly disgruntled among the Field family's three nearly adult daughters. She's openly sarcastic and hostile toward dad Jim (Callum Keith Rennie), whom she blames for all their woes.It's not an unreasonable accusation. While he maintains the extroverted, back-slapping manner suitable to his job as a used-car salesman, Jim runs the household like a drill sergeant, and his frequent explosions of temper suggest deeper instability. Resulting tense climate has already taken a severe toll on mom Mary (Richardson), a onetime dancer who's long since checked out -- she sits on the living room couch, watching TV and drinking cocktails. Relegated to being both housekeepers and caregivers, the daughters each find their own ways of coping. Private chain-smoker Lou has vague fantasies of rebellion, which find a seemingly perfect mentor in the form of self-styled hippie Tom (Kett Turton), a fellow student newly arrived from the States. Pretty-in-pink blonde Sandy (Kristin Adams) is eager to use traditional feminine charm toward any possible escape. She lunges at the first man to come along, married would-be swinger Reg (Mark McKinney). Wallflowerish Norma (Monte Gagne) is the lone daddy's-girl. She also carries a torch for the dark secret everyone else would prefer to keep buried: The girls once had an infant brother who was either accidentally or intentionally dropped from Niagara Falls. As story builds from one small event to another, the clan's uneasy insularity unravels. Things climax during one long night of intercut activities: Lou and Tom do LSD in the backyard bomb shelter; drunken Jim gives Norma a wee-hours driving lesson; Sandy, meeting her lover in a cheap motel, is informed his twin brother (McKinney again) wants to join the and a briefly neglected mom climbs onto the roof, bringing things full circle to the funeral sequence that starts pic. Interspersed are glimpses of the event that did most to damage them all. Ten years earlier, Jim had forced the family into that bomb shelter for two weeks' dominated by both parents' alcohol consumption. Grim as much of content is, atmosphere is often mordantly comic, even during the most appalling incidents. Smith handles complex, troubling agenda here with quiet skill, while an exemplary cast maintains sympathy without pushing for sentiment. Richardson's glazed, M.I.A. mother reps a nice change of pace from her usual, more brittle screen characters. Smith ably manages to offset Jim's ogre-ish behavior with a hapless pathos -- as does McKinney, in a more caricatured role. But pic belongs primarily to the young female thesps, who are excellent. While at first glance it appears that classic smart one, Lou will be major focus here, there's satisfaction in the way that story eventually gives equal weight to each daughter's progress. --Variety

Review
So many reasons to see the darkly hopeful Canadian film Falling Angels - a terrific unknown cast showcased in subtle close-ups, and a quirky literary script largely free of cliche. This quiet, melancholy movie is an Up North version of The Ice Storm, Ang Lee's rumination on 1970s American values and precocious children trying to fill in for absentee parents. Director Scott Smith, though, sticks to just one household, and even takes us deeper into their backyard bomb shelter to emphasize the claustrophobia of getting along with blood relatives. Three daughters in various stages of adolescence and young womanhood fill every corner of a modest split-level, under close watch from their tyrannical ex-military dad. All four of them keep careful track of drunk-and-dreamy mom Miranda Richardson, who spends every day on the couch in a constant stupor of forgetting. What she's forgetting becomes more and more important, as Smith weaves their 1969 story into flashbacks of the girls' childhood. The defining family moment was when Dad made them spend two weeks in the backyard bomb shelter as an exercise for looming Cold War nuclear conflict. Smith's camera draws remarkable performances from the three relatively unknown girls, taking the difficult trick of finding them unique and natural at the same time. Katharine Isabelle is smoldering as middle child Lou, rebelling against her unreasonable father and seeking companionship from an interesting American boy who has just arrived at her school. Older sister Norma, aware of her chubbiness but barely aware of her lesbian sexuality, is handled with care by Monté Gagné. Norma's the one who keeps her father from becoming a complete clown - she glows at Christmas when he gives her the family's only thoughtful present, a tool belt she will use to help finish the rec room in the basement. Kristin Adams is sweet without being clueless, as younger sister Sandy. She lets older men use her body, but she also has a goal in mind for her sex project. --Denver Post

About the Actor
Miranda Richardson as Mary Field Twice nominated for an Oscar® for her performances in Tom and Viv and Louis Malle s Damage, two-time Golden Globe winner Miranda Richardson has countless credits on stage, television and screen. Born and raised in Great Britain, Miranda studied drama at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School she first appeared on the London stage in 1981. After appearing on many British television series, she began her career in film. After earning a Golden Globe and a New York Film Critic s Circle Award for her performance in Enchanted April, she appeared as a cold-blooded IRA terrorist in Neil Jordan s The Crying Game. Soon after she starred in Louis Malle s Damage and the T.S. Eliot biopic Tom and Viv, both of which earned her Oscar nominations. After starring in Robert Altman s Kansas City, Larry McMurtry s The Evening Star, Robert Duvall s The Apostle, Tim Burton s Sleepy Hollow, Miranda starred in Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, Blackadder Back and Forth, portrayed the evil Queen Elspeth in the television movie Snow White and lent her voice to the animated hit film Chicken Run. After co-starring in David Cronenberg s latest feature, Spider and appearing alongside Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman in the Pulitzer Prize winning adaptation of The Hours, Miranda has reunited with director Neil Jordan for his much anticipated upcoming feature The Actors, with Michael Caine.Gemini and Genie award winning actor Callum Keith Rennie is one of Canada's best known and critically acclaimed actors. Born in England, Callum moved to Edmonton, Alberta when he was a young child where he met and befriended Bruce McCullough (Kids in the Hall), who introduced him to punk music in the late 70's. An opportunity to pursue acting arrived when some friends who had a radio show at University of Alberta campus radio station CJSR offered him a chance to do voice work. He was hooked immediately and that job eventually led to a year of producing and writing and he soon appeared in David Mamet s American Buffalo. After enrolling in the Bruhanski Theatre Studio in Vancouver, Callum soon earned his first Genie Award nomination for his role as the nerdy boyfriend in Mina Shum s Double Happiness. After a number of guest TV performances, Callum earned the lead as a reformed drug addict in John L Ecuyer s Curtis Charm. Soon after, he starred in the mockumentary Hard Core Logo and earned widespread critical acclaim as the charismatic Billy Tallent. After appearing for a year on the hit TV series Due South as Detective Stanley Kowalski, he appeared alongside old friend Bruce McCulloch on the offbeat, yet critically acclaimed, TV series Twitch City and had a recurring role on the Gemini award winning series DaVinci s Inquest. Callum has worked with some of the industry s most talented directors. Most recently, he appeared in David Cronenberg s eXistenZ, Don McKellar s Last Night; Lynne Stopkewich s Suspicious River, Bruce MacDonald s Picture Claire, Christopher Nolan s Memento, and Keith Berman s festival hit Flower and Garnet.

Customer Reviews

Sparkling Comedy from Canada
Based on a novel by Barbara Gowdy, Esta Spalding's film version of "Falling Angels" is a spectacular domestic comedy/drama with well-drawn characters and sparkling performances.

Callum Keith Rennie won Canada's Best Supporting Actor Oscar, the Genie, in 1998 for "Last Night." He also played the gay love interest in "Wilby Wonderful" for a guy who kept trying to commit suicide as well as appearing in "The Butterfly Effect." As the father Jim Field, Rennie is full of machismo and is lost in his own world in a household with a wife & three daughters.

Miranda Richardson, twice nominated for Oscars for "Damage" in 1992 & "Tom & Viv" in 1994 plays mother Mary, a depressive alcoholic whose illness is sheltered by her family.

Of the three daughters, Norma, played by Monte Gagne in her first film, is a tomboy who pine panels the basement and receives a toolbelt from her father for Christmas and wears it with pride. When she seems to develop a stronger-than-normal girl-on-girl attraction for the neighbor Stella played by Ingrid Nilson, the audience is not surprised. She uncovers the secret of a brother whose infant death has darkened the marriage of her parents.

However, for all of these fine performances, the film really belongs to the middle daughter Lon played by Katharine Isabelle. Isabelle has appeared in "Freddie vs. Jason" & "Josie & the Pussycats." In this film she shines as the rebellious daughter who is tired of her father's affairs, stomps on his toe and screams at him in anger. She runs her bicycle into the van of hippie classmate Tom, played by Kett Turton from "Firewall," "Gypsy 83" & "Walking Tall." Tom has long talks about Nitzche while Lon keeps turning the subject back to sex. Lon finds sanctuary in the family bomb shelter in the back yard.

The youngest sister is Sandy played by Kristin Adams who was in "Where the Truth Lies" with Kevin Bacon & Colin Firth. She is obsessed with feminine beauty, sewing stylish clothes and makeup applied with perfection. She attracts a 38-year old married shoe salesman Tom, played by Mark McKinney who won his Best Supporting Actor Genie for "Dog Park." Young as she is, Sandy believes it to be true love until Tom unveils his New Year's surprise. Pregnant, Sandy expects a ring & a proposal but winds up with a twin brother in a local motel and an offer for in-family group sex.

The film begins quickly and then moves into flashback until the final frames. Rennie's hilarious reaction to his wife drunk on the roof is to point a shotgun at her in classic black comedy mode. Director Esta Spalding handles the pacing well and does an excellent job with this sparkling comedy from Canada. Bravo!

Film of the decade on family tragedy.
This film is fabulous. Perhpas the perverse Darwin payout of growing up with a parent having a mental health crisis is the unique resilence it developes. The sisters experience is stunning and heroic. The portrayal of the whole family is done so very well. There is so much to identify with -- I could see myself in each sister. It is a perfect portrayal of isolation that leads to preventable tradegy. Everyone in mental health should see this film! It is so on target and yet not overly devastating. Bravo!

Dysfunctional family from the 60's
Wouldn't want to hang out with these people and the prospect of watching the entire movie was unappealing. I turned it off after about 15 minutes because it seemed too pointless.
If I'd known of this family back in the sixties, I would have avoided them.