Boring

During its almost nonexistent theatrical release, critics tore The Face of an Angel to pieces and then set the remains on fire, but I strongly disagree with their assessment. It is directed by iconoclastic and prolific director Michael Winterbottom, whose diverse oeuvre is highlighted by 24 Hour Party People, A Mighty Heart, The Trip, and a number of revisionist Thomas Hardy adaptations. This film pivots on a fictionalized version of American student Amanda Knox's widely debated trial for murder in Italy, particularly the popular perception of her as either a calculating vixen trading on the privilege of beauty and American citizenship or a misunderstood victim of a biased kangaroo court.

But rather than recreate the controversial crime itself or put forth an imagined declaration of culpability, Winterbottom embraces a serpent-eating-its-own-tail structure in the spirit of Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation. screenplay: the protagonist is a troubled director (Daniel Brühl) who flies to Tuscany to prep a true-crime film to capitalize on widespread public fascination with the ordeal, but then spins his wheels and slowly loses his grip on reality as he interacts with overtaxed tabloid journalists, one played by Kate Beckinsale, and gives himself over to romantic contemplation of Dante and the medieval atmosphere of the town where is staying. The result is a riveting maelstrom of ideas and tones, a film swinging from elegy to horror to media satire. It is imprecise and untamed, but in a most enticing and vivid way. Its mournful confusion is its substance, and the gloomily old-world atmosphere is evocative of vintage Roman Polanski and Nicolas Roeg.

A-

This is a mess. It doesn't really know what to be, how far it can or shouldn't go, and nothing really happens. Daniel Bruhl is just, I don't know, I hate him as an actor. And his character in this is a the ultimate prick. I also hated how every single person, though not Italian and some had only been there for a few days, would adopt the double cheek-kissing greeting. I'll give it a break for featuring Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight", which is pretty much the best thing about this film.