So many reasons to see the darkly hopeful Canadian film “Falling Angels” – a terrific unknown cast showcased in subtle close-ups, and a quirky literary script largely free of cliche.
This quiet, melancholy movie is an Up North version of “The Ice Storm,” Ang Lee’s rumination on 1970s American values and precocious children trying to fill in for absentee parents. Director Scott Smith, though, sticks to just one household, and even takes us deeper into their backyard bomb shelter to emphasize the claustrophobia of getting along with blood relatives.
Three daughters in various stages of adolescence and young womanhood fill every corner of a modest split-level, under close watch from their tyrannical ex-military dad. All four of them keep careful track of drunk-and-dreamy mom Miranda Richardson, who spends every day on the couch in a constant stupor of forgetting.
What she’s forgetting becomes more and more important, as Smith weaves their 1969 story into flashbacks of the girls’ childhood. The defining family moment was when Dad made them spend two weeks in the backyard bomb shelter as an exercise for looming Cold War nuclear conflict.
Smith’s camera draws remarkable performances from the three relatively unknown girls, taking the difficult trick of finding them unique and natural at the same time. Katharine Isabelle is smoldering as middle child Lou, rebelling against her unreasonable father and seeking companionship from an interesting American boy who has just arrived at her school.
Older sister Norma, aware of her chubbiness but barely aware of her lesbian sexuality, is handled with care by Monté Gagné. Norma’s the one who keeps her father from becoming a complete clown – she glows at Christmas when he gives her the family’s only thoughtful present, a tool belt she will use to help finish the rec room in the basement.
Kristin Adams is sweet without being clueless, as younger sister Sandy. She lets older men use her body, but she also has a goal in mind for her sex project.
Starz FilmCenter is showing “Falling Angels” at the same time it’s available through the mailbox film club “Film Movement,” which made it a monthly selection. If you don’t manage to see the movie in person at Starz before it leaves town, try the film club, written about in these pages in May 2004.
*** | “Falling Angels”
NOT RATED, with nudity, sexual content, and adult themes throughout|1 hour, 41 minutes|DRAMA|Directed by Scott Smith; written by Esta Spalding from the novel by Barbara Gowdy; starring Miranda Richardson, Callum Keith Rennie and Katherine Isabelle|Opens today at Starz FilmCenter at the Tivoli.
