SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

jotix100 Elsa, a woman grieving for her dead daughter, knows what it must feel when she suddenly realizes she might be living a lie. For all practical purposes, Lucy, her infant daughter, has been dead, and buried. Elsa's estranged husband wants to put the matter to rest and so are her parents. Now living alone with Thomas, her son, she suddenly becomes aware that his school mate, Jeremy, holds the key to solve her great pain in mourning for Lucy.We are asked to follow Elsa, as she tails Claire, the mother of Jeremy, who also has a young daughter, Lola, in whom she discovers a great resemblance of her beloved Lucy. Elsa must gain entrance to Claire's home, which is being sold as the family is moving to Montreal. Elsa appears to be a loose canon in the way she acts, getting as close to the little girl, as she can.The film, directed by Safy Nebbou, which she co-wrote with Cyril Gomez-Mathieu, asks the viewer to look at what it is being shown from the perspective of what appears to be a deranged woman who cannot find solace in the great loss she experienced. That is why, when the action turns in an unexpected and surprising way, we are completely taken aback because in our minds we have been led to view the situation from Claire's side.Catherine Frot keeps amazing with each new appearance. Her Elsa shows a woman at an almost breaking point. Ms. Frot is a welcome presence in anything she plays. In the film she is equally matched by one of the most interesting actresses from France, Sandrine Bonnaire. To her credit, Ms. Bonnaire brings an intensity to all her roles, something that she builds in a performance that is nuanced without gimmick. Wladimir Yordanoff plays Claire's husband. The great Michel Aumont is seen as Elsa's father.This is the first film by M. Nebbou, who according to the IDMb credits has worked in shorts before. The director shows talent and good instincts in the way he gets the audience involved in a film that was based on a real story.

bob_meg It's rare that you go into a movie aware of a sort-of familiar story (and this one, though true, is up with the Top 10 Lifetime plots), and a sort-of familiar genre and come out of the theater dazed at the uniquely transfixing experience you just had. Angel of Mine is one of those experiences.I really admired the way this film takes you down certain familiar paths (is it going to be a tearjerker like "The Notebook", a psycho-stalker like "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle") and then detours you completely. No, Angel of Mine is not in the same kind of "anything for a cheap rise" league.Catherine Frot and Sandrine Bonnair are always stunning but they work a kind of intuitive magic here. Indeed, the most electrifying moments between the two occur when they're being silent together.The photography is elegiac, the score poignant, the direction lucid and transparent.Get it out on Region 1 DVD folks....more people need to see this!

Mick-Jordan I often tell people that if they want to see a film – avoid the trailer. In the case of 'Mark of an Angel' I'd tell them to avoid the poster. While so many trailers these days seem to be potted synopses of the whole film ('Public Enemies' being a massive case in point) the tag-line of this film may give a way a crucial plot element of the story. Which would be a pity as this is a really first-class film. Class being the operative word given the acting talent on show here.Sandrine Bonnaire can do no wrong (unless it's required of her) and Catherine Frot has long since masked the art of barely suppressed tension and panic. Here she really brings it to the fore as she stars as Elsa, a woman with a long history of depression who develops a fascination with a seven year old girl she sees at a birthday party when she comes to collect her son. Determined to find out more about the girl she uses her son as a way in to the family ensuring that he befriends the girl's brother so that she can then befriend the girl's mother Claire (Bonnaire). She uses her son more and more in her pursuit of this obsession telling her employees that he is seriously ill so that she can run off and resume her stalking. She tells her parents she is dating so that they will baby-sit and she can do the same thing. At first Claire doesn't suspect anything but gradually notices that Elsa is paying too much attention to Lola – the girl in question. Meanwhile we are starting to realise why. Throughout the film you are not so much on the edge of your seat as pressed back into it. The tension as you wait desperately for Elsa to be found out is excruciating and when one particularly dramatic scene ends with what would normally be seen as the cop-out of Elsa suddenly waking up – you are just hugely relieved – they haven't caught her yet. And that's the thing – your sympathy is completely with Elsa, you cringe as she keeps accidentally turning up at every event involving Lola and her mother and you shudder as you watch this woman falling slowly apart. Frot really lays it on in this but Sandrine Bonnaire certainly holds her own when it comes her turn to convey the creeping (and increasing ) fear of this woman that is taking hold of her. There is one scene which is pure Hitchcock and clearly meant to be. Lola is performing in a ballet watched by her parents and brother in the audience. Claire notices her looking offstage to the wings a lot and when she turns herself she catches a glimpse of someone there. Is it Elsa? She can't be sure and she keeps straining between dancers to see but only gets the briefest of fleeting glances. It's an incredibly tense sequence of "Is it her?"/ "Is it not her?" made all the more so by the fact that we know – it is. Add to that the fact that the ballet the girls are dancing to is a musical simulation of a clock – ("Tick Tock" "Tick Tock") - and you're now pressed back into the seat behind you. This really is great stuff.

GUENOT PHILIPPE It seems that this story is based on actual events.Well, see for yourself...The yarn about a woman in her late thirties - Catherine Frot - who lives with her son and her next to be ex husband...During the birthday party of her son's school mate, with of course many children there, she notices the presence of a little seven old girl. And she decides to follow her, discover where she comes from...During the first part of the movie, she approaches the girl's mother - Sandrine Bonnaire, and her behavior seems to be more and more weird about it. You, in the audience, wonder why all this...Only near the ending - BEWARE, SPOILER !!! - you discover that the little girl is Catherine Frot's lost child, in a burning, when she was still a three days old baby!!! Of course, there is a hard struggle between the two women. Frot accuses Bonnaire to have stolen her daughter during the fire, seven years earlier.THE thing that you, spectator, wonder is :HOW THE HELL DID SHE DO TO RECOGNIZE HER LITTLE GIRL SEVEN YEARS AFTER SHE WAS ONLY A SEVERAL DAYS BABY ?!!!It's so big, so large, that you could easily let a truck pass through.But the acting of the two women is absolutely outstanding. It's worth seeing it for that reason.