TV on DVD: Fallen Angel (2007)

This Quiet Shocker of a "Whydunnit" Miniseries
That Riveted International Viewers
Takes You Deep Inside the Mind
Of a Dangerously Deadly Daddy's Girl
On 4/28/09

Bookmark this on Delicious

Print Page



As we discover throughout the alternately riveting yet disturbing made-for-ITV miniseries Fallen Angel adapted from Andrew Taylor’s internationally successful, lauded Requiem for an Angel: The Roth Trilogy, crime instead of love grows where Emilia Fox’s sinister Rosemary goes.

A “whydunnit” in every sense of the word—promising as the tagline boasts to uncover just what was involved in “the making of a murderer”—over the course of director Andrew Drury’s eerily creepy three episodes, we venture far back into the life of Fox’s psychopathic character born Rosemary who goes by the deceptive name of Angel in the first shocking episode.

The film is deeply unsettling from the start as Angel abducts a young girl for reasons unknown while living with a mentally challenged potential pedophile. And while as someone with a major reluctance to watch works that fixate on child endangerment, I share DVDTalk critic Jeffrey Kauffman’s humanistic decision to reveal that the girl who becomes Angel’s prey is released without injury—it’s nonetheless a work sure to divide audiences with or without that spoiler.

As the sinister and easily demonic Angel, Fox (The Pianist) delves so convincingly into the twisted side buried beneath her surface level beauty, I couldn’t help but think it was a pity that The Pianist director Roman Polanski hadn’t utilized her for one of his definitive psychological dramas from the era of Rosemary’s Baby, Knife in the Water, Repulsion, and Chinatown.

Although most mysteries would’ve ended when Fox was taken into custody for the abduction of the darling daughter of a police officer and his newly appointed vicar wife at the end of Fallen Angel’s first episode ("The Four Last Things"), that’s where the work truly begins as a few secrets of the woman dubbing herself Angel’s past are revealed and furthermore in the second and third episodes as we move to the development of two key incidents in her life that may have helped create the monster she was to become.

Far more interested in the “nurture” question than the “nature” one in terms of the psychological development of the detached woman—in the heavily padded but riveting second episode (that somewhat confuses when you begin to look too deeply into a few potential plot-holes), we move to Angel/Rosie’s awkward teenage years in "The Judgement of Strangers" as she’s desperate to keep her vicar father’s attention when he plans to remarry.

While perhaps the most chilling and undeniably devastating episode is in the final one-- "The Office of the Dead," that travels way back in time to encounter Rosie in 1979—it’s startling to piece together the events of her life as we discover what everyone around her has been hiding with half-truths, secrets meant to protect, and disturbing revelations that come tumbling out when characters in the first episode reappear in other forms throughout the rest of the series.

Additionally, screenwriter Peter Ramsley balances out Rosie’s plot-line with a local, disturbing tale of a mad religious leader given the far too-on-the-nose writerly name of “Youlgreave.” While he gets an "A" for effort in trying to make sense in everything found in Taylor’s source material by managing to weave a heavy horror-lite dose of sacrifice and satanic ritual into the narrative—the overlap between these two histories is never quite rock solid except in that it’s certain to help keep viewers up nights when you couple them together into the work’s disturbing effect.

Admirably, British television has always offered superlative programming in the realm of taking an analytical view of crime by working in the sociology and psychology of the cases to stunning effect especially in shows such as one of the UK’s finest-- Cracker.

And the high quality production values of the gorgeously lensed Fallen Angel are no exception as the visual look of the 16:9 aspect ratio film captured on this stunning DVD transfer make it appear on par with a cinematic feature film that’s just as upsetting in its beauty as the series’ icy sinister Hitchockian blonde murderess.

Still, ultimately, there’s something about the work that still kept me at an arm’s distance. For, although the individual pieces of the puzzle are sure to rivet—some of the sequencing seems to make this particular Angel a forced, tough fit where some reshaping may have been necessary to give it the precision and clarity it needed in helping present a more wholly plausible picture.

Of course, additional viewings may help clear up any misconceptions considerably and likewise aid in tying together a few of the loose strands and overlapping characters and plots that grow far more complex as we travel back into time. Needless to say, admittedly, by the time the film has finished we have a greater understanding of Fox’s character than we did from the start.

Still, nonetheless, I’m still uncertain whether the “making of a murderer” paradigm was much more than a gimmick since there’s still some gaps left in between and points-of-view abandoned that would’ve been vital to capture to better assess the depths this particular Angel fell to over the years beginning (or structurally ending) with an ultimate shocker when she was barely out of diapers that is sure to find you stunned long after the final credits begin to play.

TV On DVD: Midsomer Murders -- Set 12 (Four Discs)

The Detectives Return
On Acorn DVD
3/24/09

Get Caught Up

Read Jen's Review of Set 13

Bookmark this on Delicious

Print Page




Attention City Slickers: Just in case the screwball Cary Grant and Myrna Loy classic Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House or the weak but amusing Tom Hanks and Shelley Long comedy The Money Pit didn't do it for you-- taking in just one episode of British television's long running hit Midsomer Murders will make those of you dreaming of life in the country think twice.

Upon initial daydream, it may seem like the ideal solution to trade in the concrete jungle and sound of police sirens and fire trucks for idyllic landscapes but in Midsomer-- in addition to the gorgeous gardens -- unpredictable mayhem and a steady supply of deadly eccentrics run amok.

While in the case of the American comedies-- financial ruin and stress awaited the middle class families-- when it comes to the deceptively sleepy and quaint villages of Midsomer, although finances are probably of some concern, any other issues seem to take an immediate backseat to the unusually high number of homicides that crop up on a weekly basis.

Think Murder, She Wrote meets The Stepford Wives with a light seasoning of some subtle British humor thrown in for entertainment value and you'll begin to get a sense of what has made this incredibly successful show not just a hit in its native England but an international sensation. Midsomer is a smash in countries all around the world where some have renamed it after its main character Inspector Barnaby and amusingly, in Russia, it's been retitled Purely English Murder.

Although its lead actor, John Nettles has announced his well-deserved intention to retire after the conclusion of the thirteenth season (or "series" as they say across the pond)-- there's no plans to put an end to Midsomer Murders as the ITV1 network is committed to continuing the show-- inspired by the village mysteries of author Caroline Graham-- after his departure with the introduction of a brand new detective chief inspector (or DCI) in 2010.

While the show has increased in popularity with its television syndication in other countries as well as a run here on both the A&E and Biography Channel networks-- it's become a perennial favorite among anglophiles and devotees of the wonderful offerings made available for those of us here in Region 1 DVD land of the U.S. by our friends at Acorn Media.

Now with their upcoming March 24th release of Set 12, which consists of the last half of the ninth series that originally aired in September of 2006 back in the UK-- this nicely packaged set of four individual mysteries is conveniently offered in slim cases to conserve shelf space and shipping costs for those purchasing online. In doing so, it reacquaints us with Nettles' earnest, all-around nice guy character, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby as well as his eager and sweet protege, Detective Constable Ben Jones (Jason Hughes) who receives the honor of becoming a sergeant by the end of this four episode set.

Containing the mysteries, "Four Funerals and a Wedding," "Country Matters," "Death in Chorus," and "Last Year's Model," the set also boasts a few extras sure to delight devotees including 50th episode production notes, as well as a biography of author Caroline Graham, cast filmographies, and text interviews with lead actors John Nettles and Jason Hughes.

Thankfully also serving up the discs with a gorgeous 16x9 widescreen transfer complete with subtitles for the deaf and or hearing impaired, each approximately 100 minute mystery will benefit from an additional viewing as-- typical for the genre and especially the unfailingly clever and increasingly complicated plot-lines served up on British television-- every episode of Midsomer Murders is loaded with red herrings, double crosses, misinformation, and at least one to a handful of corpses each and every week.

Far from the grisly police procedural dramas the country specializes in with such classics as Prime Suspect starring Helen Mirren or Cracker featuring Robbie Coltrane (another phenomenal show just released by Acorn as a complete and compact set), Midsomer Murders is a bright and surprisingly cheerful murder mystery program that definitely echoed my childhood spent watching Angela Lansbury as the unfailingly optimistic Jessica Fletcher on Sunday evenings in Murder, She Wrote.

However, this being said, I don't remember feeling quite so thoroughly confused by a Murder, She Wrote plot as I was by this set's opener, "Four Funerals and a Wedding." The episode is given an ingenious set-up that centers on a real-life battle of the sexes that's been carried out as a medieval ritual to offer the women of the village of Broughton an opportunity to get revenge upon their male counterparts during their annual Skimmington Fayre. The ritual symbolizes a major gender betrayal far back in the village's history and while amusing, the admittedly bizarre scenario grows far more dangerous when the battle grows deadly.

Filling the mystery with far too many characters and subplots to the point where I felt as though I needed a check-list and mini-description to keep everyone straight (reminiscent of my younger years feeling the same way trying to keep up with every new character introduced on Twin Peaks), while frankly I understood the conclusion, I'm not ashamed to admit I'd fail miserably if given a test on just what exactly went down at the Skimmington Fayre.

Far less confusing but far quirkier-- "Country Matters" again takes an intriguing view of male/female relations in the village as the community of Elverton is divided into two fierce camps regarding the possibility of a brand new supermarket. However, when the prospective store's hired environmental consultant is found brutally stabbed in an old barn, the plot thickens considerably as Barnaby and Jones are stunned to discover that the mystery man who used a different name everywhere he went had done more in one particular day than most people do in a lifetime.

Uncovering the startlingly home-spun kinky side of the community involving videotapes and local women who earn extra income in a variety of strange fashions, "Country Matters" is an episode one won't soon forget and the second best in Set 12, overshadowing the subsequent "Death in Chorus" which centers on the murder of a tenor in the chorus in which Barnaby's wife sings. When Jones goes undercover as the group's much needed replacement tenor, he realizes there's more to the musical mystery than they assumed but the highlight in the quartet of "whodunnits" is in the remarkable "Last Year's Model."

In the episode, all the evidence seems to unfailingly point to one woman in particular in the death of her best friend. Added to the confusion, secrets involving unrequited crushes and double-crosses all continue to condemn her in the case that isn't helped by the accused woman's constant revision of the evening's events. However, despite this, Barnaby is deeply unsettled when he begins to realize that he may have arrested the wrong individual. And when the clinical psychologist Plu Plunkett and the dead woman's young daughter give him cause to doubt her guilt, Barnaby tries to figure out just what exactly happened in this terrific tale.

A great diversion to the grisly crime scene shows currently filling our airwaves and one that's filled with beautiful scenery and an increasingly imaginative cast of characters-- while it suffered a good deal initially in comparison to my recent marathon of Cracker (soon to be reviewed) as well as the far more amusing show The Last Detective-- there's no arguing with a classic. And moreover, one can look at Midsomer Murders as a warm televised dish of comfort mystery television just like Murder, She Wrote except without all those commercial breaks and an interest to lead us down paths that dear old Ms. Fletcher would never have taken.