Mark of an Angel (2008)

That was an excellent one.

Great Film overall

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Catherine Frot and Sandrine Bonnaire are two of the finest French actresses of their respective generations (as a - necessary - sidenote: Frot is in GREAT shape for a woman in her 50s!), and their duel here (literally, in one scene: there is a short fight scene between them) is something worth catching. The film begins with a strong sense of mystery, as the viewer tries to understand the reason behind Frot's obsession with Bonnaire's daughter, but when that reason is revealed, the picture stalls, and the main twist is telegraphed at least 10 minutes before it occurs. It's an elegant and sophisticated film, more of a drama than the thriller its trailer tries to present it as, but too slow for either genre. **1/2 out of 4.

This film has been released in Britain under the title ANGEL OF MINE, although the American title is a direct translation of its original French title which is L'EMPREINTE DE LA ANGE. The 'angel' referred to is a little girl named Lola. This is a very, very strange story, and an extremely harrowing one. The two lead actresses, Catherine Frot and Sandrine Bonnaire, take emotions to the limit and then beyond. What pros they are! Frot has made 88 films and Bonnaire has made 51, including the amazing VAGABOND (1985) of Agnès Varda, where she showed at an early age just how far she could go in playing someone over the edge of human desperation. In this film, the two women are driven far, far over that edge. The scene where they physically fight and try to tear each other apart like demented harpies is deeply shocking, as women rarely are driven to such extremes of clawing, smashing, desperate combat. The director and co-writer of this film is Safy Debbou. Unfortunately, this very shy creature, which we may call The Safy, must be considered of indeterminate sex, as there is no hint as to whether it is male or female, due to the lack of information about it on IMDb. I am inclined to suspect that it may be female, but zoological confirmation of the sex of The Safy is so far lacking. Another thing which is lacking on IMDb is the listing of the title ANGEL OF MINE, so that British cinema-lovers looking up this film will not be able to find it listed at all. I certainly hope that deficiency may be remedied. Is this a conspiracy to keep everyone in the dark? Only joking. But there ought to be a warning on the front of the DVD: 'Unsuitable viewing for the emotionally vulnerable.' There is no blood, no gore, no one gets killed, we don't have to look at corpses and wounds, but we do have something which is almost worse: raw emotional frenzy. There is little one dare say about the film's plot without revealing too much. Catherine Frot had a daughter who died in a hospital fire, and she has been distraught and depressed for years because of this. It has led to the breakup of her marriage, despite the fact that she still has a son. Through the young son, she meets a friend of the son's friend, and thus encounters Sandrine Bonnaire and her daughter Lola. Frot becomes a stalker of the daughter, with whom she is obsessed. I should stress that this film claims to be 'based on true events'. The real story becomes something other than what one expects. After all, there have been far too many films about stalkers. This is not really a stalker film at all, it just seems that way in the beginning. Watch, but beware.

Elsa, a woman grieving for her dead daughter, knows what it must feel when she suddenly realizes she might be living a lie. For all practical purposes, Lucy, her infant daughter, has been dead, and buried. Elsa's estranged husband wants to put the matter to rest and so are her parents. Now living alone with Thomas, her son, she suddenly becomes aware that his school mate, Jeremy, holds the key to solve her great pain in mourning for Lucy.We are asked to follow Elsa, as she tails Claire, the mother of Jeremy, who also has a young daughter, Lola, in whom she discovers a great resemblance of her beloved Lucy. Elsa must gain entrance to Claire's home, which is being sold as the family is moving to Montreal. Elsa appears to be a loose canon in the way she acts, getting as close to the little girl, as she can.The film, directed by Safy Nebbou, which she co-wrote with Cyril Gomez-Mathieu, asks the viewer to look at what it is being shown from the perspective of what appears to be a deranged woman who cannot find solace in the great loss she experienced. That is why, when the action turns in an unexpected and surprising way, we are completely taken aback because in our minds we have been led to view the situation from Claire's side.Catherine Frot keeps amazing with each new appearance. Her Elsa shows a woman at an almost breaking point. Ms. Frot is a welcome presence in anything she plays. In the film she is equally matched by one of the most interesting actresses from France, Sandrine Bonnaire. To her credit, Ms. Bonnaire brings an intensity to all her roles, something that she builds in a performance that is nuanced without gimmick. Wladimir Yordanoff plays Claire's husband. The great Michel Aumont is seen as Elsa's father.This is the first film by M. Nebbou, who according to the IDMb credits has worked in shorts before. The director shows talent and good instincts in the way he gets the audience involved in a film that was based on a real story.

This is a movie best enjoyed if you know nothing about it except that it is a fun thriller, so I wouldn't advise reading any reviews before seeing it.At the heart of the film is the premise that there's a special connection between a mother and her child that cannot be denied.The movie is very good at hiding where it's going. At first, you're not sure if you're watching something seamy, then you fear it may be about violence done to a child and finally it's fun to find out where it actually is going. You're not even sure if you're watching a thriller or a drama. It's keeps you on the edgeCatherine Frot is perfect as a woman who lost her newborn baby years ago in a hospital fire and thinks she's found her living with another family. You sympathize with her despite the fact that she may be insane or at least nearing a breakdown and even while you don't know whether her intentions are good or evil.I only have once concern about the movie, and that's the ending. So please don't read this if you haven't seen the movie as I'm about to give the ending away!!!First, I can't believe that finding out one's mother is not one's mother could be as easy on a child as depicted here. This part was done too cavalier and was simply not believable. However, what bothered me more was the very last scene. Forget the practical, legality of the situation depicted in this movie, a child's parents are the parents that raised her in a loving caring way. To see this woman, who had no relationship with the child during her entire life, who may still be in a dubious mental state, then walking alone with her at the end of the film was to say the least creepy. Either this was intended by the makers of the film to have a creepy ending, or it showed some lack of concern for children.Regardless of the ending, this is great fun.