THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 22, 1996 TAG: 9604200058
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
WATCH OUT, Queen Victoria. Here's another treatise in which your era, and your name, is used to prove that there's no sex like repressed sex.
Indeed, the movies, at least the ``art-house'' movies, seem to be obsessed with repression. With all those Jane Austen flicks, it's a wonder that man even made it to the 20th century.
The alternative, if these films are to be believed, is small talk. Men and women may exchange meaningful glances as long as they keep talking about how many lumps of sugar should be in the tea or when they're going to hunt the next fox.
Perhaps the most simplistic and almost-laughable of this genre is ``Angels and Insects,'' an adaptation of A.S. Byatt's 1992 novella ``Morpho Eugenia.'' It plays more like a Harlequin novel than a literary purebred.
Director Philip Haas, who co-wrote the script with his wife, Belinda, throws on the symbolism as thick as the gnat invasion he portrays in one scene. He isn't taking any chances that you'll get all the parallels between bugs and humans.
In the very first scene, a group of rather primitive-type Amazons dance about the hero, who looks as if he may be participating. This fades into a highly proper Victorian waltz setting. The comparison is typical of the way Haas lays on the metahpors: He's saying mating rituals are the same, no matter the wardrobe.
The central character is William Adamson (Mark Rylance), a naturalist whose collection of bugs, butterflies and such are lost on the trip from the Amazon. Penniless, he takes a job cataloging the bugs of the wealthy Sir Harald Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp). Before long, Adamson has married Eugenia, the prettiest of the Alabaster daughters. The courtship seems brief and cool, especially since Eugenia is just getting over the death of her other fiance.
Patsy Kensit, the British blond who sparked with Mel Gibson in ``Lethal Weapon II,'' has the role of Eugenia, a part requiring frequent bedroom scenes sans the hoop skirts. Kensit, a child star who dates back to the infamous ``The Blue Bird,'' filmed with Ava Gardner in Russia, is supposedly something of a sex symbol in England, even though she has never reached star status here.
The most interesting character is the family's tutor, played by Kristin Scott Thomas as a somewhat liberated woman who seems to know that everything and everyone is vaguely ridiculous.
Set after the publication of Darwin's ``Origin of the Species,'' there is much reference to insects and such. An ant colony is compared to society. Eugenia squeals when male bugs crawl down her bodice. During a polite dinner-table exchange about the differences between male and female butterflies, someone points out that females have drab colors for ``protective'' reasons.
There is a ``big secret'' about this family, but one wonders if it is enough of a payoff to qualify this film as social commentary.
The implication of all the bug talk, one supposes, is the usual premise that everyone went wild the moment Queen Victoria died. In the meantime, they had to cover up with endless prattle. MEMO: MOVIE REVIEW
``Angels and Insects''
Cast: Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas, Patsy Kensit, Jeremy Kemp
Director: Philip Haas
Screenplay: Belinda Haas and Philip Haas
Music: Alexander Balanescu
MPAA rating: R (nudity)
Mal's rating: two stars
Locations: Naro Expanded Cinema, Norfolk ILLUSTRATION: SAMUEL GOLDWYN COMPANY photo
Mark Rylance and Patsy Kensit in ``Angels and Insects.''
by CNB