Fallen Angel (Hallmark Hall of Fame) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the movie you reach for when you want a heart-warming holiday theme that has more meat to it than fluff. As the movie opens you see a young boy, Terry McQuinn, eager for his father's attention and approval. But his father is so focused on his work as a caretaker for the vacation homes of the wealthy that he has little time to realize how much his motherless son needs care-taking. One of the families for whom he works is coming to their vacation home, Serenity Cottage, for the Christmas holiday and Terry's father has reluctantly allowed him to come along as he prepares the home for their arrival. The Wentworth family shows up while Terry and his father are still at the home--a happy little girl named Katherine, her adoring father, and her seemingly cynical, unhappy mother. The father has a tradition of taking gifts to children in a hospital at Christmas and he invites Terry to go along with him and his daughter to the nearby hospital. It is a very snowy evening and there is an accident which takes a life. Mr. Wentworth blames himself and wanders off, never returning home. Mrs. Wentworth takes her daughter, gets a divorce, and never returns to the vacation home.
As time passes and Terry has grown to be a teenager, the tension between his father and himself has also grown. The final straw is when Mr. McQuinn fails to come to his son's graduation because he is doing some work for one of the wealthy families. He and Terry have bitter words between them and Terry takes off.
Flash forward many years. Terry is a successful attorney in L.A. His father, from whom he is still estranged, dies and Terry returns home to settle his affairs. While there he sees a note his father had made about the current owner wanting Serenity Cottage opened for the holidays. He calls and explains that his father has died, he is just there to tie up the loose ends and will be leaving soon so he can't help them, but will find someone who can. After he learns that the owner is the daughter of the former owner, the little girl that he had known, he stays on and is there to meet Katherine and her very unique daughter. She has forgotten that one visit she made as a child and has no memory of ever having known Terry. He does not tell her otherwise. The story takes some interesting turns from there.
Throughout the movie it deals with some serious issues--dysfunctional families, grief, homelessness, adoption, disabilities, and deception. Of course, there is romance in the air--and also intrigue, as you learn the fate of Katharine's father. The storyline holds your interest and the characters are not one dimensional. The acting is good and the movie is well worth the viewing. I highly recommend it, but if you have young children it might be a little deep for them.
At the time of this writing the price of this movie through the marketplace sellers started around $35. If that doesn't drop you should be able to get it at a Hallmark store for around $20 or from their website for an additional $7 in shipping.


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The Tribe Review

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(More customer reviews)Jamie (Jeremy Northam) is charged by the head of his firm with removing a mysterious group from some property he wants to develop. This `tribe' is a sort of cult, which barricades itself inside a gated mansion in a seedy part of London. Local, would-be hooligans are afraid of this group for no particular reason, especially considering the group is comprised of feeble, malnourished models. To earn a living, the Tribe sells electronic gadgetry on the street. How they obtain the gadgetry in the first place is a bit of a secret, though the group suspects it involves an exchange for sex between a desperate Japanese businessman and their leader, Emily (Joely Richardson). All of this is peripheral to the real crux of the group, which is free love. Jamie penetrates the group (quite literally) in the name of procuring the land that houses the group's fortress, though he finds himself increasingly both enamored of the Tribe's charm and disillusioned by his career ambitions. Made for the Beeb, there are certainly some silly moments, such as several scenes of the group strutting down the street or over meadows in their black robes, or barging into the compound of a competing sect and trying to form an alliance. Nonetheless, this film certainly provides enough mystery and allure to hold one's interest for most of its runtime. I initially wanted to watch it for Kate Isitt (of `Coupling' fame), though her role is very, very small. Not to fret, Northam and Richardson prove to be charming attractions. Anna Friel, however, practically steals the show as the wayward and free-spirited (read: loose) Lizzie. Fans of Jonathan Rhys Meyers probably will not be disappointed to find him fully nude in a couple scenes as well. There is also a series of this show, though I am not familiar with it. The DVD is presented in widescreen and the transfer looks great, though it lacks in all other departments; no subtitles or extras of any sort. This is not rated by the MPAA since it was made for TV, though it is the equivalent of an `R' rating due to full frontal nudity, profanity and a wee bit of violence.

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Lady Chatterley (1992) Review

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(More customer reviews)It is rare that a novel can successfully be adapted to the screen without losing much of its force. Lady Chatterley, Ken Russell's adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, however, loses almost none of the force of the original source. The novel was banned when it came out, and one viewing of Lady Chatterley will explain why.
The British VHS box for Lady Chatterley boasts that it is filled with "very, very erotic sex." That is about the most accurate statement you can make about this movie. Lest one get the wrong idea, however, this made-for-TV movie is not pornography. It utilizes the original plot, cutting out some of the more social aspects of the novel, to tell a beautiful story about one woman's search for love -- sexual and otherwise -- outside of her marriage and class.
Joely Richardson, best known in the U.S. for cavorting with Mel Gibson in "The Patriot," here bares it all early and often with Sean Bean. Both of them shine in their respective roles. Ms. Richardson is brilliant as a strong, independent woman whose husband is crippled during WWI, thus basically ending her sexual life prematurely. Sean Bean plays her lowly, gamekeeper lover, Oliver Mellors. The dirty, scruffy, growling Mellors is the perfect vehicle for Sean Bean's talent -- part bad guy, part sensual lover, in many ways a guilty pleasure (much like Sean Bean himself!)
This is not a movie for immature audiences -- it is as beautiful a story as it is erotic, much the way D. H. Lawrence wrote it. Nor is it for the faint of heart -- the sex scenes are revealing and very intense. It is beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, and overall, is an amazing cinematic experience. The 3.5 hours are well worth watching, at least for fans of Joely Richardson or Sean Bean.
Although the movie is extremely good, I would definitely recommend reading the original novel as well, particularly the unexpurgated version. Some of the best scenes in the novel were cut for censorship considerations and their inability to work onscreen. Nonetheless, fans of the novel will not be disappointed -- and those unacquainted with the novel will certainly be more than a little surprised at the force and eroticism of this movie.

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From the director of Women in Love and Altered States comes a retelling of the literary classic that launched the most celebrated obscenity trial of the 20th century. In adapting the famous tale of unbridled passion, Ken Russell has made a moving love story and some of the most talked about television of the 1990s. Joely Richardson (Return to Me, The Affair of the Necklace) stars as the young, sexually repressed Lady Chatterley, whose paralyzed husband (James Wilby, Gosford Park) urges her to find fulfillment and an heir for his fortune in the arms of another man. Sean Bean (Patriot Games, The Lord of the Rings) is the lowly gamekeeper whose scandalous attentions awaken her senses. DVD special features include an exclusive interview with writer/director Ken Russell, behind-the-scenes photo gallery, broadcast trailer, cast and crew filmographies and DH Lawrence biography.

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