From Amazon.com
Angels and Insects, an ambitious costume drama, tells the tale of William Adamson, a buttoned-down Victorian explorer (Mark Rylance) who returns to England penniless and dependent on the kindness of his sponsor, Sir Harald Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp). Adamson's intelligence and lower social class endear him to the old man, but Sir Harald's son, Edgar, seems annoyed by his presence. Nevertheless, Adamson falls in love with Sir Harald's daughter, a shy sex kitten (Patsy Kensit), and offers to marry her. A web of sexual politics, true love, and class struggle develops, even as the explorer begins an intriguing study of a nearby ant colony. With encouragement from a dirt-poor Alabaster cousin (Kristin Scott Thomas), Adamson begins to write about the insects, never realizing the parallels with his own life. The film is a puzzle to solve while savoring the beauty of flesh and outlandish, vibrant costumes. Rylance, unknown to most American audiences, is a perfect hero to root for, with his impeccable manners and soothing Scottish tones. Another curious winner from filmmakers Philip and Belinda Haas (
The Music of Chance).
--Doug Thomas
Review
Philip Haas' adaptation of A.S. Byatt's witty, ironic take on the social practices of an aristocratic family in Victorian England is a chilling meditation on the insularity of wealth. However, it focuses on William Adamson Mark Rylance, an impoverished naturalist who has returned from a decade in the Amazon. He becomes a long-term guest of Jeremy Kemp, who has an interest in science, and eventually marries his lovely daughter Eugenia Patsy Kensit. Drawing a not too subtle parallel between the habits of the insect societies Adamson studies and the barbaric mores of his highly civilized patrons, Haas throws the assumed hierarchy of species into question. As in a Henry James' novel, the characters' behavior is often oblique and their speech elliptical, yet they point the way to an ugly truth that is soon surmised. Rylance is properly dour and dense as a scientist too myopic to divine his fate, Kensit effective as the butterfly fluttering her wings, and Kristin Scott-Thomas brilliantly ironic as the plain, sympathetic Matty Brompton. Paul Brown's stunning costume design, particularly for the women, also plays an integral role in the film's impact. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
