ANGEL HEART (1987): Starring- Mickey Rourke, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling, Stocker Fontelieu, Brownie McGhee, Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Whitcraft, Eliott Keener, Dann Florek, and Robert De Niro.
Directed by- Alan Parker
Well, have I got an intersting little offering for you today. Alan Parker's ANGEL HEART is an absolutely outstanding film, and one that you may not have heard of. That is an absolute tragedy. I sincerely believe that this is a masterpiece of horror cinema, and of cinema itself. It effectively combines the detective genre with the horror genre, and honestly, it's a damn scary movie!
The film begins in 1955, in the office of private detective Harry Angel (Rourke). Angel is contacted by a strange gentleman named Louis Cyphre. (De Niro) Cyphre wants Angel to help him find a former client of his named Johnny Favorite. Favorite was a popular singer who was drafted and injured during World War II, losing his memory. Favorite was checked into a hospital, an utter vegetable.
Since then, Cypher has had no contact with Favorite, and wants Angel to investigate to see whether he is still alive or not.
Angel travles to the hospital and learns from elderly, morphine-addicted Dr. Fowler (Higgins) that Favorite was taken from his hospital bed years ago. Fowler was paid to keep it a secret and he continued to falsify the hospital's records. After speaking with Angel, the doctor is murdered.
Angel pays a visit to Spider Simpson, a former guitar player in Johnny Favorite's band, and finds that Favorite had a very shady past. Favorite carried on a relationship with a young, southern debutante named Margaret Krusmark (Rampling), while also carrying on with a woman named Evangeline Proudfoot, with whom he had a daughter, Epiphany (Bonet).
Following this trail, Angel is lead to New Orleans, where this case begins to take on strange undertones of voodoo and satanism. After interviewing Toots Sweet (McGhee), a gutiarist associated with Johnny Favorite, Angel meets with Epiphany, who claims to have no memory of her father, except that her mother claimed that he was purely, absolutely evil.
After meeting with Margaret Krusmark, Angel begins to have doubts about the case, and these doubt grow when his witnesses begin turning up dead, murdered in exceedingly grusome ways.
This, however, is where I must end my summary of the movie. If I went any further, I would risk giving away the film's twist ending, and that would be an absolute crime. I'll just say that the ending works perfectly, and unlike some other films with twist endings, this one still holds up during a second viewing.
This movie is wonderful. Everything works about it. It's truly a tragedy that it isn't more well known.
The cast is simply magificent, especially Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro. Rourke's gives a performance in this that I think is better than his performance in THE WRESTLER (2008). De Niro is wonderful as Louis Cyphre. Though he has little screen time, he brings a subtle, sinister presence to the role.
The cinematography by Michael Seresin is fantastic. Everything in the movie just has a sort of seedy, trashy quality to it. This is perfectly complimented by Trevor Jone's score. Both of these factors give the film an eerie, uneasy feel to it, which is exactly what works for it.
If I had to guess why this movie isn't exactly popular, I suppose it's because the film isn't exactly for every taste, as it is quite grusome and unpleasant at times, and the story isn't uplifting in the slightest.
Also, the film was quite controversial at the time of its release, due to an incident involving actress Lisa Bonet, who starred as Denise on The Cosby Show at the time. It's rumored that Bonet was forced to leave the show due to Bill Cosby disliking a certain scene in the movie. (Believe me, you'll know which scene I'm talking about when you see it.)
So, there you have it. I highly recommend this movie if you're not easily disturbed or disgusted by films. Personally, I love it.
My rating- * * * 1/2 out of * * * *
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