"The Face of an Angel" (2014)

This is the biggest mess of a film that I have seen in a long time. It is pretty much an unredeemable disaster of a movie. And it is a shame because there were clearly some high aspirations.

The film flirts with a meta element, but never embraces it. It is essentially the story of a filmmaker trying to make a film out of the Amanda Knox case. Early on in the film a journalist tells the filmmaker he needs to turn it into a fictional account, because that is the only way he will be able to tell the truth. So, it is no surprise that—although the facts of the case are those of the Knox trial—we are dealing with a “made-up” murder.

Where an interesting choice could have been made comes early on. The producers are talking about actors they could cast in the roles of their characters. Had they actually mentioned the actors who really are ultimately cast, it could have been a way to make this interesting on some level.

Instead we get to see the main character repeatedly fail to write a script as he is too obsessed with: his failed relationship, a deeper truth that he can insert into the film, Dante’s writing, and cocaine. One wonders if the script is an autobiographical account of the actual writer. However, whereas in the film our character fails and is fired, this film actually and inexplicably got greenlit.

Skip this disaster.