Angels And Insects

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Patsy Kensit, the melancholy beautiful daughter of his patron Sir Harald Alabaster, enchants him and accepts his proposal. They continue to live with her family in the Alabaster stately home, populated by her over-protective swinish brother, her many seemingly identical siblings and later offspring, and her bloated queen-bee of a mother.

I do have to come to the defense of some of the actors, however. Some comments mention that the acting is somewhat wooden. I tend to disagree. (Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course). Okay, so Patsy Kensit may not be the next Vanessa Redgrave, however, I think she offers what the part calls for. Her "wooden" nature fits the character. I see Eugenia as having a definite mental imbalance, thus her often subdued acting seems appropriate. Kristin Scott Thomas is excellent as the clever and mysterious Matty. As for the rest of the cast, I believe that they all did a fine job portraying these somewhat difficult characters.Hmmm. I'm really torn about this book. On the one hand, the writing was excellent. On the other, it was very bizarre. Lots of insect imagery and themes in the first story, Morpho Eugenia. I felt it was…too much, however. An excellent and very accurate adaptation of A.S. Byatt's ("Possession") novella, "Morpho Eugenia", which was published along with her "Conjugal Angel" under the title "Angels and Insects". Morpho Eugenia is full of symbolism and would give fodder for

I won’t pretend this isn’t slow or that I drifted off during some of the minor exchanges. Nor do I think it rises to the overall excellence of “Morpho Eugenia” – a story so powerfully written that I have it on a list of novellas I’d consider teaching to first-year students. Instead, it seems a useful experiment in conversing with intellects of a time almost out of reach to us. And that’s something worth doing.But it is Eugenia (Patsy Kensit) who is the focus of the film. A poor naturalist (Mark Rylance) is madly in love with her, but her racist brother (Douglas Henshall) warns him that he is not of the right class and should be real. William (Rylance) flits ever so cautiously towards Eugenia's web and is ensnared. I am sure there is something beneath the surface here; maybe the same something that caused Eugenia's former fiancée to kill himself.