Angels and Insects (1995)

I'll tell you why so serious

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

the ugliness that is revealed in the end of the movie is somewhat predictable. the writers seemed to have given too much away. and at time the film moves quite slowly. definitely not for fans of jerry bruckheimer movies. on the other hand if you have a thing for Darwinian thought, well written prose, and don't mind a bit of nudity, this may just be your thing. The British accents are quite thick and a bit of humor could soften the film up. Did humor exist in Victorian england? It sure doesn't turn up in any of the literature? The movie has some fine acting and adequate directing but the writing borders on poetry. Does anyone actually speak like the Adamson character in this film? Who Knows? 7 out of 10 on a good day. A lazy Sunday morning movie.

This movie presents a brilliant stage worthy level of acting to the screen. I was stunned by the quality and subtlety of the performances especially the lead and Kristin Thomas. The story is almost painfully slow but that helps create a mood and sexual tension that works perfectly. I was literally on the edge of my seat both with the drama of the characters and just wanting to be closer to their nuanced performances. Jeremy Kemp as the elder Lord of the manor Sir Harald Alabaster displays aristocratic intelligence rarely found in films. The dinner table discussions of the emergence of the radical new approaches to evolution and culture surrounding Darwin's revelations are compelling. Also the role of Edgar, representing the boorish son who clings to the old ways of class hierarchy is finely wrought. Highly recommended. A thoughtful film.

Most previous reviews of this film seem to take up extreme positions: They express either fervent admiration or virulent dislike. The first group seems to be from lovers of British period films such as the Merchant-Ivory productions, while the second seem to come from filmgoers with more pedestrian sensibilities. 'Angels and Insects' is certainly better than the usual Hollywood garbage, but it is certainly not of the caliber of the best British period films. There is a scene near the end of the film where the main character shuffles a hand of cards and in so doing rearranges the word 'INCEST' to spell 'INSECT.' Maybe this anagram was the inspiration for this entire story!William Adamson, a Victorian naturalist/entomologist of modest means, suffers a devastating career setback in the course of returning from a Brazilian expedition. Sir Harald Alabaster, who also likes entomology, takes pity on him and offers him refuge at the Alabaster estate, where he meets and marries the beautiful oldest daughter Aurelia, who, true to her name, has golden hair, but who in fact seems to be little more than a pair of ovaries with legs. He actually has more in common with drab, plain governess Matty Crompton, who turns out to be an amateur entomologist who is more accomplished than he is! With nothing else to do, he sets about studying the insects on the Alabaster estate. Matty volunteers to be his assistant. The lives of the Victorian idle rich are portrayed as days of mind-numbing fatuousness, but strangely, Adamson's intellectual pursuits are not made much more interesting. He is looked down upon by his brother-in-law Edgar, a thoroughly hateful young man who seems to be interested mainly in molesting all the young female servants. Aurelia produces child after child for William, but somehow they seem quite unlike him, and he has trouble feeling any connection with them. The reason becomes apparent when he discovers that all the children are the product of incest between Aurelia and Edgar, which has gone on for many years. William is scandalized, of course, but is also glad to have a reason to leave the Alabaster estate. Matty confesses her love for him, and off they go to South America. Fade to black.This film has a great look but the plot lacks the immediacy or interest of, say, Howards End. The actors are also not of the caliber of the best films of the genre. It is more like viewing a succession of Victorian paintings than watching a supposedly living, moving story. Compositions are strangely drab and lusterless and the dialogue is muffled and difficult to make out. Master shots that are meant to be stately and imposing come across as static and boring. And the great secret of the film, i.e., the incest, actually fails to make much of an impact, and Patsy Kensit is spectacularly unconvincing as the mortified, disgraced Aurelia after William discovers her.

This story was worse than pathetic. This movie ranks up there with the most boring, meaningless, waste-of-time movies that I have seen. The only reason that I actually suffered and watched the entire movie was because it was categorized as a "mystery". Believing indeed, that it was a mystery, I figured there would eventually be some sort of revolution that would surprise me. This never happened. This movie is far from being mysterious, as it is extremely simple, plain, dull, boring, uneventful, and flat out the biggest waste of 2 hours that one could endure. The only people that I could possibly recommend this movie to is those that enjoy incest, which is no one that I am associated with. I only wish that I had taken the advice of so many here. 1 out of 10