Angèle, a beautiful young woman with a past, arrives in a small fishing harbor in Normandy. She meets Tony, a professional fisherman, who finds himself attracted to her although he dislikes her blunt ways.
Tony hires her as a fishmonger, lodges her and teaches her the tricks of the trade. The relationships between Myriam, Tony's mother, and Angèle are far from easy but the young woman gradually adapts to her new environment and little by little Tony and Angèle manage to tame each other... Read more …
Angel And Tony manages to be both intimate and cinematic, fully earning its upbeat seaside finale.
Immersed in the salty sea air of France's Normandy coast, Delaporte's debut is a tender tale brimming with atmosphere.
A screwball comedy played straight and with the gender dynamics inverted.
At its best, Delaporte's film gives the impression of being uncovered as opposed to constructed, like an eccentric bit of driftwood exposed at low tide.
Hesme and Gadebois are both very good, somehow convincing us that this odd couple may inexplicably be right for each other, and the seaport setting is given a touch of poetry by Mathieu Maestracci’s gentle score.
The story...carries little conviction.
Despite its faults, there's enough here to want to see what Delaporte does next. But only just.
Though a slow-burn affair, with Angel's story taking too long to reveal itself, Hesme and Gadebois turn in memorable, and in Hesme's case very moving, performances.
Too slight to really satisfy as a feature, too long to work as a short, Angèle and Tony is yet another pleasantly presented, utterly perfunctory arthouse offering featuring disparate characters on the margins of life coming together in schematic ways to reveal very little of any consequence.
Hooked by the devil in the role of an Angel
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Tuesday July 31, 2012, until Thursday August 2, 2012. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com
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