Angie

Comment: Angie is the story of a woman who leads a mediocre, lower middle class life in New York. Angie settled for the same boyfriend she's had since highschool and apparenty fell into an unchallenging job along with her life long friend as co-worker... prepared to stick to the status quo until kingdom come doesn't even scratch the surface.

The only memories of her mother dead mother are unphased pictures in her mind of a few brief moments as a girl. She is, however, inandated with the short tales from her father and socially-awkward step mother that are less than merciful and don't save a daughter's fond memories of mom.
When Angie gets pregnant by her boyfriend, she dares to imagine that things can be really different, and decides not to marry him, against everyone else's advice.

Angie meets a new, artsy guy who sweeps her off her feet....after she says "uncle." When the baby is born at Christmas there's an unexpected twist that reminds us all that the past won't be ignored, the truth will always surface, and you can't betray your feelings and fears. You should always go home, but you don't have to be exactly the same person when you step over the threshold!

Overall great movie to watch with the girls!

Comment: Bought this for my girlfriend who just had surgery done and had to stay at home for a few weeks. This was her favorite movie so I bought it. It was a total disappointment. The brand new video started and about 1 minute into the movie it stopped and did not go on again. She gave it back to me for me to try it out. It did the same thing. I'm very disappointment in the quality of the DVD.

Comment: There is nothing terribly earthshaking about the film "Angie", which is one of those slice of Brooklyn life films that follows from childhood through motherhood Miss Angela Sciarrapensieri and her decisions about life,love and relationships with family and friends.I identified so many story lines that felt queasily familiar and overdone from other films, both earlier and later.Typically, with each of these films, one leading lady shouldered the entire burden of the film to make it work: Cher in Moonstruck (Deluxe Edition),Melanie Griffith in Working Girl and recently Ellen Page in Juno, and for good measure throw in Mary Stuart Masterson in Second Time Around.Here, Geena Davis shows off her Academy Award winning skills (The Accidental Tourist) in another off-beat,sassy, no-nonsense role as a Italian Brooklyn girl whose views on relationships with boyfriends,family,school-days chums and pregnancy are brought to their breaking and breaking-up points.Davis is the "lynch pin" of "Angie" and she is outstanding.This film will be enjoyed solely for looking at a consummate actress doing great work.The story is unusual in that not all of Angie's choices are what you think they are going to be, thus making this delightful and not as totally predictable as the aforementioned flicks.Angie is full of surprises and never leaves this film dull at any moment.Co-stars a very young James Gandolfini The Sopranos - The Complete Series (Seasons 1-6.2), Stephen Rea The End of the Affair and Aida Turturro.

Comment: Martha Coolidge also directed "Rambling Rose" with Laura Dern, which was much the better picture. This was nowhere near that level. It was very soap opera-ish, with an "Oprah" feel to it. Melodramic, a woman's picture. If you like Geena Davis, you're in. But there was one line at the end - - "I figure everybody's got something broken in their lives. It's up to the less broken to take care of the more broken" - - that is memorable. "Angie's" ending was too warm and perfect. There were some good scenes, but the whole crisis was set up by Angie's dad, who never really told her about her mother. Too contrived. Her feelings about motherhood were good, though. And I liked her stepmom. She had a lot of good lines.

Comment: I'm not quite sure why anyone felt it was necessary to make this movie. This is the story of Angie, a young Brooklyn woman of Italian descent who leads a rather routine, bridge-and-tunnel sort of existence as an office worker who commutes to her job in Manhattan. She has a circle of friends who seem to lead lives which are more or less similar to hers, the closest of whom are Tina, her overweight, lifelong buddy, and Vinnie, her plumber de facto fiancé who has been her steady since high school. Angie and her father both carry the scars of having been deserted by Angie's mom--an incident shrouded in mystery due to her father's reluctance to discuss the actual events. Angie often ponders her mother's desertion, which eventually motivates her to take drastic action near the end of the film.
We're given to understand that Angie isn't quite as happy as she should be with the routine of her life. When she discovers that she's pregnant, she--realizing it's probably her last chance to do something different--decides to go for broke and not marry the doting Vinnie. She finds her catalyst in Noel, a glib Irishman who practices international law and who has picked her up in Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which Angie is visiting alone, having been unable to convince the boorish-but-sweet Vinnie to accompany her. Noel takes Angie's eventual revelation of her pregnancy in stride, carrying on a part-time affair with her right up to her admittance to the delivery room, at which point he abruptly dumps her. Angie's child has a birth defect and refuses to nurse from her. After walking in on her loathsome stepmother nursing the baby, our overwhelmed heroine flees to Texas in search of her mother, closure, and enhanced self-awareness. The ending is rather predictable.
I can't imagine that anyone male (at least of my acquaintance) would find anything to enjoy in this film. It's concerned only with female issues and addresses them on a rather superficial level. I also found it quite unbelievable that Noel would hang around as long as he did; in fact, what possessed him to get involved beyond a possible one-night stand in the first place? Angie is a very pretty, wisecracking young woman, but she's coarse, somewhat vulgar, and a potential embarrassment every time she opens her mouth (a contemporary Stella Dallas?), whereas Noel, despite the eventual revelation of his caddishness, is a cultured professional. Is the clue to his infatuation to be found, perhaps, in his truly appalling haircut? No answer is ever given, although we're nearly as shocked as Angie at his unbelievably callous defection (it transpires that he's married and "kind of" separated, presumably to someone more appropriate but less attractive).
In fact, this entire movie stretches credulity. Post-partum crazies aside, are we really expected to believe that a working-class American girl with a loving, supportive family is going to abandon a newborn?
This film's saving grace lies in its performances; all are excellent. Davis' Angie is appealingly played (although her "Bensonhurst-ese" is a tad over the top) and the support characters shine as well. Jerry Goldsmith's soundtrack is, predictably, delightful. The problem is that despite strong performances, these characters are caricatures and the story is one-dimensional and rather ridiculous, strewn with cliches and the occasional silly platitude that's meant to sound profound. This one can be avoided with no great sense of loss.
Incidentally, for my money, the "Santa scene" is one of the most tasteless performances ever captured on celluloid. Perhaps this was the final straw that broke the camel's back for Noel? We'll never know for sure.