Pros: A touching ending that almost wins us over.
Cons: But by then, we’re almost past caring.
Written and directed by Alix Delaporte, the French film Angèle et Tony follows Angèle, a troubled young woman (Clotilde Hesme) who returns to Normandy to face her troubled past after a stint in jail for the supposed murder of the father of her child.
Back in Normandy, she attempts a reunion with her estranged 9-year-old son Antoine, now content in being raised by his devoted grandparents. Struggling to win her son’s forgiveness, Angèle’s life is now a seedy tale of sleeping with strangers for ‘Shanghai Action Men’ for her son and shoplifting clothing from local stores. Her wobbly attempts at riding the bikes that she steals becomes a metaphor for her rocky return back to her stable surroundings.
In comes Tony (Grègory Gadebois), the plump fisherman and fellow title character, who Angèle meets through a personal column and who she quickly moves in with to escape her parole hostel. Angèle is quickly accepted into the fishing community and begins working alongside Tony’s mother to sell what he catches from a quayside stall, whilst she slowly attempts to rebuild a relationship with her young son who wants nothing to do with her.
The story kicks off with an extremely slow and dull start and the two title characters seem mismatched and chemistry lacking. The ending is well directed and produced but by then, we are so confused as to why we should care about Angèle and her life that the scene doesn’t mean as much as it should. There’s a particular scene in the movie where Angèle head butts a wall to convince the shop assistant who caught her stealing that she’s not worth the hassle of dealing with. Unfortunately, she almost convinces us.
Released: 4th May 2012
By Jennifer Tate
Twitter @JennieTate
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