Critics stony towards Angel
The recent parade of big-budget CanLit film adaptations that began with Emotional Arithmetic and Fugitive Pieces continues this week with the release of The Stone Angel, starring American actress Ellen Burstyn. Not surprisingly, critics are greeting it with the same level of enthusiasm they showed the others.
The Toronto Star’s Philip Marchand (who just can’t seem to escape the CanLit content) begins his review as follows:
Does every Canadian movie based on a Canadian novel have to be scored with mournful violins and weeping cellos?
Meanwhile, The Globe and Mail’s Liam Lacey has this to say:
Neither a revelation nor a travesty, the movie version of The Stone Angel is essentially what you might expect: There is a reverence for the idea of Laurence’s book but ultimately, in spite of its spiced-up sex scenes, it’s much tamer and more conventional.
And Now’s Glenn Sumi has the last word with this backhanded compliment:
If you wait long enough, it’ll show up as a CBC Sunday night movie (where it’ll look just fine).
