Where Angels Fear to Tread Reviews

In the wake of A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984), A ROOM WITH A VIEW (1985) and MAURICE (1987), two more screen adaptations of novels by E.M. Forster were released in 1992. The Merchant-Ivory production of HOWARDS END was a tremendous critical and commercial success, earning nine Oscar nominations and taking in over $25 million at the box-office. WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD, unfortunately, ran a very distant second. Though it closely follows the novel--written after Forster's first trip to Italy with his mother, when he was just twenty-six--much has been lost in the translation. The rich and recently widowed Lilia Herriton (Helen Mirren) goes on a three-month Italian holiday to recover from her loss. Her late husband's family is only too glad to see her off, since they find her rather too provincial for their upper-class tastes. Lilia leaves her nine-year-old child in their care and is chaperoned by vicar's daughter Caroline Abbott (Helena Bonham Carter, a Merchant-Ivory regular also seen in HOWARDS END). Lilia's in-laws are horrified and outraged when they receive a letter informing them that she is engaged to "someone she met at a hotel." Mrs. Herriton (Barbara Jefford) and spinster daughter Harriet (Judy Davis) dispatch lawyer and family member Philip Herriton (Rupert Graves) to Tuscany to rescue Lilia, but he's too late. She's already married to the very handsome, very charming and entirely unsuitable Gino Carella (Giovanni Guidelli). He is a poor local dentist's son--at age twenty-one, a little over half her age--and an opportunist who keeps his soon unhappy (and soon pregnant) wife confined at home while he gallivants, as is his custom, with the neighborhood lovelies. The Herritons conclude that Lilia has been seduced by the country and write, telling her that any further communication should be via solicitor. But when Lilia dies in childbirth, Harriet and Philip return to Italy, intending to ransom the child from his father so that he can be "properly" raised in England. Much to their surprise, Gino refuses. Unable to understand, much less appreciate, the fact that Gino actually loves his son, the Herritons kidnap the baby, with dire results. WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD may have elements of both tragedy and comedy, but the pedigree cast (most of them alumni from other Forster films) aren't particularly convincing at either. With the exception of the always wonderful Mirren (who dies off early on) and Guidelli (impressive here in his first English-language film), the actors bellow or fret their way through one-note characterizations. The film is mired by heavy-handed direction, which includes some attempts at humor that quickly descend into slapstick--as in a scene where Harriet attempts to enforce decorum on a raucously enthusiastic Italian opera audience at a performance of Lucia di Lammermoor. WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD has structural problems, too. The most potentially interesting characters, Philip and Caroline, are largely peripheral to the story. Caroline, a poor maiden aunt in a family of rich relations, has the gumption to engage the Herritons in battle for the child. (She wants to raise the baby herself, and have him go to English schools at her expense.) Philip is a more or less neutral figure who comes out with a remarkable final admission. After the pair have returned to England, Caroline confides to Philip that she loves Gino. He responds: "If he had asked me, I would have given myself to him body and soul. I love him." Other elements of the story are morally disquieting. From the time she goes to Italy until her death at least a year later, Lilia--of whom we've grown quite fond--is almost entirely negligent of her daughter back in England. And those responsible for causing the fatal accident of the finale show barely a trace of remorse at their actions. Overall, this is an unsatisfactory experience--surprisingly, since the production stems from the same team that was behind TV's award-winning "Brideshead Revisited" (director Charles Sturridge and producer Derek Granger, who both co-wrote the screenplay with Tim Sullivan).