Allison Davies
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Maleeha Vincent
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Bumpy Chip
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
smfishe2
Where to start? Like Scrabble, all the pieces are there! Thomas Dekker. Thomas Dekker looks like what Michael Jackson might have hoped for with his 23rd plastic surgery. Thomas Dekker could don a long hair wig and play a female role without any further assistance from the make up department. Am I supposed to believe that this guys is a rugged outdoorsman? Jeremy Piven should have played the lead role! You dragged him out the way up to Canada for his short role! The producer should have kicked out the extra dough to cast Piven as the lead! You might have made your money back! The fact is, any male actor in this film would have been better in the lead role than Dekker. Dekker's luscious eye lashes and gentle features are a huge distraction! He is a pretty boy cast for a role that requires someone a bit more rugged, to put it lightly! This story is excellent and could have been knocked out of the park with some better casting decisions!
jfarms1956
This movie is for the over 30 crowd. There is not enough action in it to hold interest for younger viewers. There is too much time spent in the movie with people running around and cursing one another. The actors try to do a good job, but with a bad script, it makes it difficult. The movie should not have spent so much time with the people running around trying to find the boy and condemning each other. More time should have been spent after finding the boy and contemplating what it meant to each of them (fewer supporting cast members). Loss of a child is more of a personal tragedy. The finding of the child did provide poignant moments. I would not watch this movie again, but I can understand how it might help those who have lost children knowing that others suffer as well. Bad things happen to good people. If movies can't entertain or teach, they should be able to help us somehow in our own lives. I give it 3 thumbs for those it might help.
taclark
The power of this film depends on your perspective. Have you raised a 3-year old? Have you experienced the death of a child? Most importantly, is the story believable and can you put yourself in to it?Unfortunately, few watching this film know it mirrors the real life story of Paul Wayment and his son Gage: The following are excerpts (Spoilers) from the real story found on pulitzer.org: "Six inches of snow covered the small body. Gage lay in a fetal position, his hands clenched, his eyes wide open. His pajama legs were up to knees; his feet had worn through his thin booties. His throat was blue. In his eyes were frozen tears." Paul Wayment's statement to the court: "If I could change places with my son, I would give up my life without question. But I can't. The life that I now live in is the hell that I alone created. The pain is incomprehensible. . . . The word 'sorry' does not even begin to express the feelings I now live with. . . . I admit full responsibility for my actions and will accept whatever punishment you deem appropriate." "They found his body (the father) on a sloping ridge next to a pair of binoculars, a Pepsi Big Gulp and a Winchester .243 hunting rifle. He'd picked a spot, surrounded by quaking aspens, that provided a view of the hills where they'd searched for Gage. Julie George imagined his final afternoon. He'd sat with the binoculars, surveying where Gage died. At sunset--he would have waited for his beloved dusk--he'd put down the binoculars and picked up the rifle." "At the courthouse that afternoon, (Judge) Hilder sat dazed in his chambers. Tears filled his eyes."http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2002-Feature-Writing Knowing the real story makes this film, Angel's Crest, much, much more powerful. It's too bad Angel's Crest wasn't made to be a true story with a follow up explanation at the end telling of the ongoing lives of the people involved.Those that have rated this film poorly or written unflattering reviews might want to watch it again after reading the true-life story.
Michael_Elliott
Angels Crest (2011) ** (out of 4)A small community is ripped apart when a father (Thomas Dekker) is charged with negligent homicide after his three-year-old son dies. The two were out on a trip when the father decided to go check something out and leave the kid sleeping in the truck. The son managed to get out of the vehicle, get lost and the next day he is discovered dead. After the father is charged a whole group of people act differently to the events. I'm sure director Gaby Dellal had high hopes for this film and I'm sure the subject matter was something very close to her but she should have requested a re-write because the screenplay here is a complete mess that thinks it's something deep but at the end of the picture you realize that it's nothing but one shallow character and situation after another. There's no question that 100% of the blame must go towards the screenplay because every single one of the characters are shallow, boring and it's impossible to care for them. As I watched the movie I kept wondering what emotion I was supposed to be feeling, who was I supposed to be feeling it for and there are just scenes that take place, take you down one direction and then it just cuts off and you're sitting there wondering what the entire point was. We see the father struggle over guilt. Understandable. We learn that the child's mother is a worthless piece of drunk trash. There's a restaurant owner (Mira Sorvino) who has some of her own secrets. There's a lesbian couple who can't agree whether the dad is to blame. For some reason one of the lesbian's sons shows up and of course he hates gay people. There's even the father's best friend who just happens to be sleeping with the mother. All of these characters enter, say dialogue but you're never quite sure why they're there and in the end none of their stories come together for anything. You even have Jeremy Piven playing the D.A. who has his own past that he's hiding from. I'm sure the point of the film was to try and show what one event would have on a large group of people but the film is a complete failure. I will say that the opening ten-minutes were effect but this is due mostly to the subject matter. Seeing such a young kid die isn't easy to watch so of course it's going to be disturbing. Everything that follows is just one big mess. Performances are decent at best but you can tell they're drowning as it seems none of the actors know what to do and they appear to just go around without cause. ANGELS CREST has an interesting idea but sadly it goes nowhere and the film runs out of gas even before it can get going.
