Simone Ford, an American journalist based in Rome, Italy and Thomas, a filmmaker investigate the murder of Elizabeth Pryce, a British study abroad student in Siena, Italy. ‘The Face of An Angel’ hit theaters on Friday, June 19. The British psychological thriller film is based on the true events surrounding Amanda Knox, who was accused of murdering Meredith Kercher in November 2007.
Roger Ebert rated the film 1.5/4. IMDb rated the film 5.3/10 based on reviews by 468 users. Metacritic gave the film a Metascore of 37 based on reviews by 16 critics. The film received 2 positive reviews, 8 mixed reviews, and 6 negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes rated the film 43% on its Tomatometer with an average rating of 5.2/10 based on 40 reviews. 17 of the reviews were Fresh, while 23 were Rotten. Its Audience Score is 22% with an average rating of 2.6/5 based on 791 user ratings. The film runs for 101 minutes.
"It's not up to us to decide what people should and shouldn't know," says Simone in the official movie trailer.
‘The Face of An Angel’ stars Kate Beckinsale as Simone Ford (Barbie Latza Nadeau), Daniel Brühl as Thomas (Michael Winterbottom), Cara Delevingne as Melanie, Genevieve Gaunt as Jessica Fuller (Amanda Knox), Ava Acres as Bea, Sai Bennett as Elizabeth Pryce (Meredith Kercher), Rosie Fellner as Katherine, John Hopkins as Joe, Peter Sullivan as James Pryce, Alistair Petrie as Steve, Corrado Invernizzi as Francesco, Valerio Mastandrea as Edoardo, Andrea Tidona as Pubblico Ministero, Austin Spangler as Timothy, and Ranieri Menicori as Carlo Elias.
Daniel Brühl at the Embassy on February 2015.
The film was directed by Michael Winterbottom and produced by Melissa Parmenter. The screenplay was written by Paul Viragh. Its production companies are BBC Films, Cattleya, Multitrade, Revolution Films, Vedette Finance, and Ypsilon Films. It was distributed by Soda Pictures. ‘The Face of An Angel’ is based on the novel Angel Face: The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox by Barbie Latza Nadeau, a writer for news website The Daily Beast and crime coverage reporter for Newsweek magazine.
Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:
“There's a great deal of intelligent material here. Winterbottom mounts a harsh attack on our fascination with killers and our tendency to forget the victim. Yet it's overlaid with so much navel-gazing, it's hard to take,” wrote Tirdad Derakhshani from Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Past Winterbottom films have turned "real life" into both comedy and tragedy. The Face Of An Angel turns it into a directionless skulk,” wrote Jesse Hassenger from AV Club.
“A picture that trades any suspense for endless scenes of a bored Bruhl staring at a screen, trying to find a story. Any story,” wrote Stephen Whitty from New York Daily News.
Cara Delevingne at the Toronto International Film Festival in Ontario, Canada on September 2014.
“The Face of an Angel may not be like any other whodunit you've seen, but it's also only superficially smarter than the genre it defines itself against,” wrote Simon Abrams from Village Voice.
“Winterbottom is not out to thrill, but to lecture on the truth, which, he believes, can only be found in fiction,” wrote Brad Wheeler from Globe and Mail.
“The Face of an Angel ties itself up in some strange knots, but Michael Winterbottom conjures up a haunting gothic atmosphere in Siena,” wrote Dave Calhoun from Time Out.
“There are many good things in the swiftly-moving narrative, filmed with a hand-held camera to give a documentary look,” wrote Deborah Young from Hollywood Reporter.
