Angels Crest (2011)

Too much of everything

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I watched this film because the DVD cover fooled me. It renamed the movie as ABANDONED and featured an intense cover featuring a snowbound corpse and what looked like a hunter. Could it be an horror/thriller type film? The answer is nothing like. This is instead a small, community-focused drama entitled ANGELS CREST, made in Canada, and a film where virtually nothing happens for the entire running time.The story is about a little kid who wanders off in the snow and ends up dying. This proceeds to act as a catalyst for all the relationships between the local townsfolk to implode at which point everybody blames each other, scapegoats emerge, and everyone spends the whole movie arguing. A few familiar faces, like Elizabeth McGovern and Mira Sorvino, show up and give quite horrid performances. There's very little incident and just a whole lot of unlikeable characters who you just wish would get off the screen. No atmosphere, no suspense, and very little drama, ANGELS CREST is a real bore.

There is nothing challenging in the screenplay of this film, and the decision seems to have been taken to create a movie of a kind of easy access. It tries to treat a terrible occurrence in everyday lives, in a normal, small town community in those very terms, without making anything sensational.The film deals with issues which are always relevant to so many people - loss, guilt, coping, addiction and, let me say kind of demonology perhaps in authority - in the most basic terms. Unlike similar kinds of films, this one never thinks it knows, never thinks it has to go beyond the fundamental realities of these situations in order to picture them well. For me, this leaves a lasting impression and means that I can think about these issues actually, much more easily than if I had not seen this film. That's a rare occurrence in movies, to me. Usually I find that my mind is vacuumed by the end of a film, whether or not it was said to "deal with" issues or treat issues for discussion or awareness in the audience.A nice, serious film which seems to present something of real life. Certainly of real life concerns, without patronising, feeling the need to suggest that life is more than life really is, nor getting lost in a fictional world of fantasies that have no real meaning for humans today.There are twists, and the elements develop which allow the viewer to make conclusions for himself / herself. This then becomes the essence of this movie beyond the lovely cinematography, the latter becoming as an echo the expression of the ongoing, inexplicable beauty in life, a backdrop to the pain, struggles and torture.Though the script is simple, with no pretensions or irrelevant ambitions, some viewers looking for something else may consider this a weakness in the film. For myself, it is a very strong point in a well crafted piece, from original idea, through very good, simple dramatic acting, to a full, beautiful, simple, understated presentation in the whole production.

Where to start? Like Scrabble, all the pieces are there! Thomas Dekker. Thomas Dekker looks like what Michael Jackson might have hoped for with his 23rd plastic surgery. Thomas Dekker could don a long hair wig and play a female role without any further assistance from the make up department. Am I supposed to believe that this guys is a rugged outdoorsman? Jeremy Piven should have played the lead role! You dragged him out the way up to Canada for his short role! The producer should have kicked out the extra dough to cast Piven as the lead! You might have made your money back! The fact is, any male actor in this film would have been better in the lead role than Dekker. Dekker's luscious eye lashes and gentle features are a huge distraction! He is a pretty boy cast for a role that requires someone a bit more rugged, to put it lightly! This story is excellent and could have been knocked out of the park with some better casting decisions!

Ethan Denton (Thomas Dekker) is barely an adult himself, and yet he already has a three-year-old son named Nate (Ameko Eks Mass Carroll). They live together in the snowy peaks of Angels Crest, a small working-class community nestled somewhere within the Rockies. One morning, Ethan notices fresh fallen snow. He decides it would be fun to take his son out into the wilderness to play, and so they drive there. He then leaves Nate in the car and goes into the woods to check out a herd of wild deer. It doesn't seem like a big deal. After all, the heat is set at maximum, the doors are locked, and Nate is safely secured in his car seat. It proves to be a monumental lapse of judgment on Ethan's part; upon his return ten minutes later, he realizes that Nate has gone missing. The ensuing search-and-rescue effort eventually leads to the discovery of Nate's lifeless body, half buried by the snow and located about a quarter mile away from the car.I was initially drawn into the plot of "Angels Crest," as it quickly became apparent that it wasn't going for the obvious. I'll bet that, after reading the first paragraph, you thought I was describing the opening scenes of a mystery thriller. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but in this case, your instincts are wrong. Adapted from the novel by Leslie Schwartz, the film isn't about a needless death so much as the repercussions on the living; it closely examines the dynamics of a tight-knit community and how easily it can unravel in times of great emotional distress. It all boils down to morality – or, more accurately, how we believe our own sense of morality should apply to other people. When it comes to the death of a child, it's not simply a matter of everyone having an opinion; it's a matter of the need to assign blame. Someone always has to be responsible.I said before that I was initially drawn in. As compelling as I found much of this film, I couldn't help but find some of its narrative techniques disagreeable. Two things stick out in my mind. Firstly, some of the characters are badly underwritten while others are one-note caricatures. Secondly, all leads up to an unearned and emotionally manipulative ending that only gives the illusion of ambiguity. I don't think this is a bad movie at all, but I am very disappointed that it never became the great movie it so clearly should have been, given its examination of attitudes and people (those that were well developed, at any rate).For now, I'll focus on what I liked about this movie, and thankfully, it amounts to more than what I disliked. I mentioned earlier morality and the need to assign blame; those that know Ethan, which is just about everyone in Angels Crest, have very definite opinions about him. They only intensify after he appears before a judge and enters a plea of not guilty. Some are convinced that he was a negligent father and, for all intents and purposes, a murderer. Others believe that he's a basically decent person who simply made a bad decision. Others still believe that he was too young to have a child in the first place. It's clear that Ethan wracked with guilt. He will spend a great deal of time researching the child safety seat Nate was strapped into. He will even buy several of them and take them apart, desperate to find some kind of manufacturing flaw.The other part of this story is Nate's estranged mother, Cindy (Lynn Collins). Her alcoholism, which has only gotten worse since the tragedy, is actually what landed Nate in Ethan's custody. Naturally, she thinks it's his fault their son is dead. As the film progresses, she begins to realize that it may not be that clear cut. At this point, it appears the discussion of morality and blame has just gotten much more interesting. If she wasn't a drinker, would Nate be alive today? Would he have been born at all? Given their young ages, I suspect alcohol played a part in him being conceived. Into Cindy's life reenters her religious mother (Barbara Williams). On the outside, she's calm and caring. She even tells Ethan that what happened wasn't his fault. But the cracks begin to show as her daughter's behavior becomes more careless. What does she really think of Ethan? Who does she really blame for Nate's death?If the entire film had stuck to this level of storytelling, it would have been a true dramatic gem. Alas, we're bombarded with superfluous subplots, all involving people who are at best indirectly involved with Ethan. The worst character is Jack (Jeremy Piven), the prosecution attorney who has what appears to be a personal vendetta against Ethan. His reasons are left a little obscure; the best we get is a vague reference to his own painful loss. Perhaps if the filmmakers had bothered to delve a little more deeply into this character, we would have had a reason to care about his hostility. And then there's the ending, mentioned earlier. I truly don't know what director Gaby Dellal was thinking when she decided to include it. Movies like "Angels Crest" don't benefit from heavy-handed, manufactured conclusions, especially when they had not been building up to them.-- Chris Pandolfi (www.atatheaternearyou.net)