Angie (1994) Reviews

• Angela Scacciapensieri

  Blooeyz20012002-04-05

  Originally intended for Madonna (who can't act & would have definitely STUNK!), this was an excellent role for Geena Davis. "Angie" is a film about an Italian/American woman from the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, N.Y. Her mom left her when she was a child & because of this she has a romanticized notion of her mother & a deep fear of abandonment. She wants more out of life than her working class plumber boyfriend (and father of her child) can offer her so she falls in love with a lawyer from Ireland while pregnant(someone as far removed from her Brooklyn world as possible!) After the baby is born, the lawyer dumps her & she also feels rejected by her son (you'll have to see the movie to find out why) so she heads off to Texas to finally face her mom for some type of closure. Yes, this character's angst & situations can be overwhelming , but real life can be like that too sometimes. The musical score, by Jerry Goldsmith, is excellent (particularly "Angie's Theme") & compliments the movie wonderfully. The movie also has a knack for capturing the New York Italian/American experience authentically. At times, "Angie" feels like a hybrid of other films ("Working Girl", "Beaches", "Saturday Night Fever", "Moonstruck" & "Pretty Woman") but it works. (This film is based on the novel "Angie, I Says" by Avra Wing. In the book the main character's name is Tina Scacciapensiari & her best friend's name is Angie. The first names of these characters were switched for the film).

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• Good-natured, a pleasant parent's movie...

  Cephyran2004-09-13

  I'm a guy, and as such, chick flicks aren't my forte. However, having watched this movie with my family, I can say it's not half bad. Geena Davis is an intriguing actress. She always has a decent, good-natured way about her characters, and that really shows through in this film. It's an effective story about coping with family issues in an Italian-American family. Davis' title character has to deal with raising a newborn without the support of the child's father, and that throws everything in her life into a tailspin. I wouldn't exactly say it's a memorable work on Davis' resume, but it's a quality movie none the less. I'd recommend it as a family movie, more for the parents than the children.

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• Let's just introduce 15 subplots and abandon them all

  BenjCarr1999-06-25

  Though Geena Davis is a great actress, good at playing particularly strong-willed women, the screenplay for "Angie" just meanders all over the place, from light comedy to the staunchest of melodramas. I mean, what kind of a movie has a woman go into labor while gyrating in a Santa Claus suit then show her give birth to a one-armed baby, get abandoned by her married lover, watch as her stepmother breast-feeds the one-armed baby, abandons said baby, finds her long-lost mother (who it turns out is a schizophrenic), learns that one-armed baby is in a coma... all in about 15 minutes. This was one of the most uneven films I've ever seen. Turturro's particularly good in it as the best friend, yet her character is left out of the final half hour, though she's a central character, and never returned to. Rea and Gandolfini's potentials are completely wasted in a movie that just doesn't seem to know what to do with itself.

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• A good movie for exploring adoption issues.

  Kay-181999-01-14

  The protagonist (Geena Davis) was told she was abandoned by her mother, grew up with secrecy surrounding the whereabouts of her mother, was lied to, and felt abandonment issues that she had to deal with -- much like an adoptee. Her stepmother tried to pretend she was the mother of Gina's charactor. Geena's character left her own baby for awhile, but regretted it later. One amazing and gratifying detail for me is when the step-mother character admitted that Geena's charactor was the mother of her child and "we" (her and her husband) had no rights coming between them (which they had been trying to do). So unlike mothers in real life, this woman was allowed to reclaim her child after she dealt with her problems. It's a good movies for exploring adoption issues.

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• Unbelievably muddled, but Geena is always worth a look...

  moonspinner552008-03-30

  Comedy-drama from talented if erratic director Martha Coolidge concerns a modern Italian-American working woman in Brooklyn, pregnant and unmarried, finding herself curious about the mother who abandoned her and her father years before. Begins brightly, with Geena Davis seemingly well-cast in the lead, but it quickly becomes mired in colorless sub-plots (including the woman's resentful best friend and her abusive husband, a schizophrenic mother, a needy stepmother, a malformed infant, and a married boyfriend!). By the midway point, Davis begins to struggle in her role, pushing her pivotal moments too hard and losing her innate likability. Worse, this scenario is far too neat and tidy--and when the actors aren't being overly 'cute', they're screaming senselessly at each other. Sadly, "Angie" bombs out. *1/2 from ****

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