This motion picture will stay with you long after you've seen it. It has a tendency to leave you feeling quite disturbed and unsettled. This can be attributed mainly to the films last 15 minutes, wherein the lead character Harry Angel, a private investigator (played by Mickey Rourke), learns the emotionally devastating truth behind the case he has been working on. Rourke is quite good throughout the entire movie, lending his character a certain sleazy-cool charm, but it is in the films last few moments that he shines best. His harrowing display of pain in these scenes is so intense and believable that you truly feel his despair. Robert De Niro who appears in only a few scenes (in a key role), also does good work.
Now for the down side. Director Alan Parker from the very beginning imbues his film with such a heavy atmosphere of impending doom that we hardly have a chance to breathe. If he had perhaps lightened up a bit in those earlier scenes, the ending would have slowly crept up on us and been even more shocking and disturbing than it was. Also he attempts to combine the horror and detective genres with only moderate success (especially in the later case). What usually thrills us about classic film-noir detectives is their sarcastic wit and hip dialogue. This verbal element is sorely lacking in ANGEL HEART, so the audience tends to latch onto the visual aspects of the investigation which are not enough to keep us totally riveted for the first two thirds of the film. On occasion the director also loses his sense of subtlety and allows sex, blood and gore to steal the show (as in the bedroom scene with Rourke and Lisa Bonet).
The above complaints aside, ANGEL HEART is an unforgettable and haunting film which though not a totally pleasant experience, is still worth a look, especially if you like films dealing in psychological horror.
Final Verdict: 6 out of 10.
Now for the down side. Director Alan Parker from the very beginning imbues his film with such a heavy atmosphere of impending doom that we hardly have a chance to breathe. If he had perhaps lightened up a bit in those earlier scenes, the ending would have slowly crept up on us and been even more shocking and disturbing than it was. Also he attempts to combine the horror and detective genres with only moderate success (especially in the later case). What usually thrills us about classic film-noir detectives is their sarcastic wit and hip dialogue. This verbal element is sorely lacking in ANGEL HEART, so the audience tends to latch onto the visual aspects of the investigation which are not enough to keep us totally riveted for the first two thirds of the film. On occasion the director also loses his sense of subtlety and allows sex, blood and gore to steal the show (as in the bedroom scene with Rourke and Lisa Bonet).
The above complaints aside, ANGEL HEART is an unforgettable and haunting film which though not a totally pleasant experience, is still worth a look, especially if you like films dealing in psychological horror.
Final Verdict: 6 out of 10.