badajoz-1 Review of Where Angels Fear to Tread

Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991)

Dreary adaptation of a dreary book

[2/10 · 16 February 2010]

I read the book in my late teens (I was completely unaware of the closet gay theme, or that's what the critics say!) and was singularly unimpressed. I saw the DVD in my sixties and was even less impressed! The theme is buttoned up Brits in sunny, laid back Italy, and how they are unable to adapt or cope. We see it all in the first twenty minutes and thereafter the film has nowhere to go, but to re-emphasise the production values, the costumes and the scenery. And, as with 'Avatar' it is not enough to make a film. The characters are uninteresting or over the top, and lack any depth. Various crucial character motivations are left unexplained, the acting is stilted or over the top (both Helen Mirren and Judy Davis), and the crucial plot elements like the death of a baby barely make a mark (I don't count the silly, presumably homoerotic, punching of the Rupert Graves character by the grieving Italian father!). As with other Foster adaptations - why has he got the reputation as a leading English novelist? It is grindingly stilted and of its' time (or is it the one we've been brainwashed into accepting - eg buttoned up middle class Brits?). There were the social changes and the Boer War during Edwardian times!!! Poor, I've dumped the free DVD in the Carity Shop!