Talk of Angels (1998)
This is the story of a young Irish woman who comes to Spain to escape from the pressures she feels about her impending marriage to a political activist in Ireland. But in Spain in the 1930's, taking a job of governess in a wealthy family, she finds the same kinds of political unrest. In fact, it isn't long before she finds herself attracted to a married man who is similarly involved in the struggle against fascism and Franco. This awakens her to her nature that brings her to such men and resolves for her what she must do about the life she left in Ireland
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Waste of time
Absolutely Fantastic
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
The superficiality of this poor film is its main failing. The Spanish Civil War was not explained at all, much less its byzantine structure, and the whole thing looked to me like an early Disney movie in Technicolor.The music was loud, overbearing, and trite. The bullfight stuff was sanitized, romanticized, and looked like some grade-schooler's idea of what a bullfight might be like. The commentary on the part of all the actors was juvenile and to me insufferable in its naiveté.The romantic stuff was wooden, rote, and simply ghastly, as Maggie Smith might observe.I know a lot about the SCW and Spain and this movie represented none of it. I have no idea what caused others here to think it good.
This movie badly wanted to be of the "Thornbirds" variety, but they tried to cram it all into 2 hours. Unfortunately, this means that all the different plot elements are so rushed as to become nonsensical. You never see the development of the relationship between her and the children, or even much of her and the son. The movie focuses on so much meaningful interaction between her and the father that at first I kept thinking they were going to fall in love. It certainly seemed that way on his part, and the two definitely had a lot of chemistry. Perhaps it was jealousy you see when he finds the postcard?One thing that bothered me is that her governess friends keep endlessly harping on how "young, beautiful, naive and innocent" Mary is. Polly was 32 when she played this role, and although she is strikingly beautiful, she is hardly what I would call a girl. Even more so considering the time period of the film. I think a much younger, authentically Irish unknown would have suited the part better. The accents are a little mystifying for me. I don't know much about Spain, but only some of the characters spoke the proper "lisping" Castilian Spanish. Everyone else did not. Am I missing something here? The ending was horribly rushed, in my opinion. I understand her choice to leave, but some followup would have been nice. On the whole, this movie left me wanting a few hours more, and it was ultimately disappointing.
This was a very boring movie for me, I have to say. There was no excitement, no real emotions, no passion... Just a fake dramatic romance, set on purpose during a political turmoil (any kind will do...), like so many movies are, without anything political to say (...fascist or royal regimes are mostly preferred). So what we get is a typical romance, with old-fashioned, TV-style direction and over-dramatic performances with extra schmaltz. Yes, exactly like a Mexican soap opera. (Mexicans, don't take it personal, but in Greece a lot of Mexican, Brazilian etc. soap operas are on TV every day). So, if we get so many soap from our TV sets, why should we watch one on the big screen?
From reading the previous viewer contents one would never be able to truly appreciate what a marvelous film this was. Perhaps one of the reasons I reacted so positively to this film was that I lived through that period of the Spanish Civil War which had great meaning for many millions of Americans. It was, of course, the preview to WWII with the Germans backing General Franco and the Russians supplying the rebels. However even without the drama of pre civil war Spain the film stands up well on its own as a beautiful love story. An especially provocative theme of the movie is reflected in Maria's comment that "We are shown what it is we most desire but we cannot have it". Unfortunately this poignant comment is all too true for countless millions of folks. One important segment of the film not mentioned by previous viewers is the magnificent musical score. Its recurring melodic themes have a hauntingly beautiful effect which serves to enhance the sensuous love scenes between the two principals.