An Angel at My Table

Campion has made a biopic the way a biopic should be. Instead of condensing her subject's life into an overwrought, linear little fable, as is the custom, Campion offers us a montage of little snippets or slices-of-life. They are not puzzle pieces but rather little windows into Frame's moving life story, leaving room for the imagination. I think Campion's aesthetic dignifies both her subject and her viewers. Kerry Fox's acting is marvelous.

What can I say? Brilliant. Kerry Fox's performace is Oscar material, as is the writing and maybe even the direction. There's something to be said for a movie that can go on for two and a half hours without ever getting the least bit tedious, and that something is: "impressive".

Although linear in structure, the story doesn't take you from point A to point B, but rather produces fragments of interest. Some large, some small, but all rich with sincere human behavior, emotion, and drama. The three actresses who play Frame are all fine, but it's Fox who dominates with a stunning, nuanced portrayal. You can tell how deeply she inhabited this character, and can appreciate how difficult it is. The film is gobsmackingly gorgeous, with bright warm lighting and vibrant colors

As biopics go, this is pretty damn impressive. It's a very vibrant portrait of a unique individual - there are few protagonists as simultaneously fragile/withdrawn and ambitious as Frame, and Fox really inhabits the role. Her life moves all over the place, and pretty much every episode is interesting (if never, to me, wholly captivating). And visually, the movie is fantastic; Campion's use of light and color is really eye-catching, and the locales (particularly New Zealand) are gorgeous.

With the exception of a few great films, I question whether the biopic is suitable for celluloid; something innate in the genre is uncinematic and extremely cumbersome except for the few great films. This film has its significant merits - Kerry Fox is great and it is a satisfying work to watch - but there is little else to it of interest.

Often this is a magnificently poignant film, where Janet's emotions and personal demons are subtly displayed and interestingly developed. Occasionally, though, the film is almost as awkward as she is, transitioning from one part of her life to another while leaving threads hanging and bringing up information that could be its own movie and then never mentioning it again. The great more than makes up for the stumbles, and a strong lead performance helps too.

An amiable presentation of a person's youth and early adulthood, that feels rather lively (moreso from her family than the sometimes bewildered-looking protagonist) and does a great job with feeling fluid with the expansive timeline. Though it gets tiresome when so much happens to Janet, yet quite a bit of it doesn't seem to stick to her and develop her character, which is especially tiring for a 160 minute film.

An impressionistic approach (sometimes slipping into exaggeration) that generally succeeds at conveying the unfolding of many years of a life, offering a sense of the protagonist’s internal world and life's frequently strange, pathetic and tragic character. Coincidentally, on the day I watched this, I had earlier been writing about my father, who was a psychologist, and about how he used to say that the main function of his professional life was to undo psychiatric misdiagnoses of schizophrenia.

Solid with great performances by both the young and older Frame. The first act kind of reminded me of Terence Davies. I was never entirely clear on why she was incorrectly diagnosed with schizophrenia--I thought that could have been explained a bit more, and I would have liked to have heard some more about the connection between the shock treatments and her behavior in the future. Still, it's an interesting portrayal of an interesting life

A bland quilt.

A life told through episodes, with very little narration; it's very strong as a construction of a person, her identity, different experiences, without trying to voice how she felt. There's also an interesting potrayal of mental health treatments and institutions of the time; very well produced and directed.

https://letterboxd.com/ladyspiggott/film/an-angel-at-my-table/

What a beautiful movie.

This is a biopic about the New Zealand author, Janet Frame. It basically just chronicles her life in New Zealand and abroad from childhood until she became a successful writer. I found the film rather charming and captivating. I liked it. I feel like it can be put into the category of quintessential New Zealand films, with others like Heavenly Creatures (1994) and Once Were Warriors (1994).

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I thought the first half of the movie was interesting and then it just kind of got dull from there. The running time was definitely too long. Also, I didn't really get where she had emotional problems or extreme shyness? She seemed pretty normal to me... maybe I missed something.

"Campion's knack for solitary yet paradoxically epic scope nibbles off Laura Jones's bite-sized scene-sketches of loneliness and makes entire meals of them." - Eric Henderson

okay

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