[.ca] Angie

From Amazon.com:
This slice-of-life film out of Bensonhurst begins like a Working Girl rip-off: earnest and endearing woman leaves neighborhood boyfriend (James Gandolfini) to find happiness with a suave professional (Stephen Rea). But there Angie turns into a tale of self-discovery. As with Todd Graff's previous script, Used People, the characters are colorful but never seem more than broad brush stokes. What is left is an admirable acting piece by Geena Davis, who shoulders an entire movie for the first time with winning success, although many will see her mother-to-be as unrealistic. Director Martha Coolidge's (Rambling Rose) direction underscores Angie without wild mannerisms or a heavy accent, making her a memorable character that was originally to be played by Madonna. The trailers were misleading, showing clips from the back half of the movie. It's more about independence than motherhood, and Davis stubbornly desires to be happy and on her own. Plenty of laughs thrown in, mostly from Rea's endearing loafer. Gandolfini is excellent in his first major role. --Doug Thomas

REAL EMOTIONS ABOUND:
I found this to be an endearing movie. I didn't want to watch, but couldn't turn away from Angie's pain during her self discovery. She has made poor decisions and was always looking for the greener grass, but comes to find she is her own worst enemy, and best friend.

Let's throw in 15 subplots and abandon them all.:
Though Geena Davis is a great actress, good at playing particularly strong-willed women, the screenplay for "Angie" just meanders all over the place, from light comedy to the staunchest of melodramas. I mean, what kind of a movie has a woman go into labor while gyrating in a Santa Claus suit then show her give birth to a one-armed baby, get abandoned by her married lover, watch as her stepmother breast-feeds the one-armed baby, abandons said baby, finds her long-lost mother (who it turns out is a schizophrenic), learns that one-armed baby is in a coma... all in about 15 minutes. This was one of the most uneven films I've ever seen. Turturro's particularly good in it as the best friend, yet her character is left out of the final half hour, though she's a central character, and never returned to. Rea and Gandolfini's potentials are completely wasted in a movie that just doesn't seem to know what to do with itself.

Boring, whiney chick-flick:
This film bored me out of my skull. Angie is an Italian woman from a traditional blue collar background who tries to "find herself" and become "self-actualized." So she bounces about relationships, tries her hand at pink collar careers, fixes up her own place, gets pregnant, gives up the kid (he's handicapped), then decides she wants it back. She also mends emotional bridges with her mother. Blah, blah, blah, yadda yadda, plus some hanky scenes and screamfests. I really hated this movie. I only bought it because the Internet Movie Database claimed that horror/B-movie actress Diane DiLascio (Poltergeist: The Legacy, Babylon 5, Star Trek: Enterprise) was in it. She's not. Guess she ended up on the cutting room floor.

All Chick, No Flick:
I'm not quite sure why anyone felt it was necessary to make this movie. This is the story of Angie, a young Brooklyn woman of Italian descent who leads a rather routine, bridge-and-tunnel sort of existence as an office worker who commutes to her job in Manhattan. She has a circle of friends who seem to lead lives which are more or less similar to hers, the closest of whom are Tina, her overweight, lifelong buddy, and Vinnie, her plumber de facto fiance who has been her steady since high school. Angie and her father both carry the scars of having been deserted by Angie's mom--an incident shrouded in mystery due to her father's reluctance to discuss the actual events. Angie often ponders her mother's desertion, which eventually motivates her to take drastic action near the end of the film. We're given to understand that Angie isn't quite as happy as she should be with the routine of her life. When she discovers that she's pregnant, she--realizing it's probably her last chance to do something different--decides to go for broke and not marry the doting Vinnie. She finds her catalyst in Noel, a glib Irishman who practices international law and who has picked her up in Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which Angie is visiting alone, having been unable to convince the boorish-but-sweet Vinnie to accompany her. Noel takes Angie's eventual revelation of her pregnancy in stride, carrying on a part-time affair with her right up to her admittance to the delivery room, at which point he abruptly dumps her. Angie's child has a birth defect and refuses to nurse from her. After walking in on her loathsome stepmother nursing the baby, our overwhelmed heroine flees to Texas in search of her mother, closure, and enhanced self-awareness. The ending is rather predictable. I can't imagine that anyone male (at least of my acquaintance) would find anything to enjoy in this film. It's concerned only with female issues and addresses them on a rather superficial level. I also found it quite unbelievable that Noel would hang around as long as he did; in fact, what possessed him to get involved beyond a possible one-night stand in the first place? Angie is a very pretty, wisecracking young woman, but she's coarse, somewhat vulgar, and a potential embarrassment every time she opens her mouth (a contemporary Stella Dallas?), whereas Noel, despite the eventual revelation of his caddishness, is a cultured professional. Is the clue to his infatuation to be found, perhaps, in his truly appalling haircut? No answer is ever given, although we're nearly as shocked as Angie at his unbelievably callous defection (it transpires that he's married and "kind of" separated, presumably to someone more appropriate but less attractive). In fact, this entire movie stretches credulity. Post-partum crazies aside, are we really expected to believe that a working-class American girl with a loving, supportive family is going to abandon a newborn? This film's saving grace lies in its performances; all are excellent. Davis' Angie is appealingly played (although her "Bensonhurst-ese" is a tad over the top) and the support characters shine as well. Jerry Goldsmith's soundtrack is, predictably, excellent. The problem is that despite strong performances, these characters are caricatures and the story is one-dimensional and rather ridiculous, strewn with cliches and the occasional silly platitude that's meant to sound profound. This one can be avoided with no great sense of loss. Incidentally, for my money, the "Santa scene" is one of the most tasteless performances ever captured on celluloid. Perhaps this was the final straw that broke the camel's back for Noel? We'll never know for sure.

"Angela Scacciapensieri":
Originally intended for Madonna (who can't act & would have definately STUNK!), this was an excellent role for Geena Davis. "Angie" is a film about an Italian/American woman from the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, N.Y. Her mom left her when she was a child & because of this she has a romanticized notion of her mother & a deep fear of abandonment. She wants more out of life than her working class plumber boyfriend (and father of her child) can offer her so she falls in love with a lawyer from Ireland while pregnant(someone as far removed from her Brooklyn world as possible!) After the baby is born, the lawyer dumps her & she also feels rejected by her son (you'll have to see the movie to find out why) so she heads off to Texas to finally face her mom for some type of closure. Yes, this character's angst & situations can be overwhelming , but real life can be like that too sometimes. The musical score, by Jerry Goldsmith, is excellent (particularly "Angie's Theme") & compliments the movie wonderfully. The movie also has a knack for capturing the New York Italian/American experience authentically. At times, "Angie" feels like a hybrid of other films ("Working Girl", "Beaches", "Saturday Night Fever", & "Moonstruck") but it works.