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List Price: $9.99 | | Label: Walt Disney Video
Salesrank: 61667
Released: October 14, 2003 |
| Our Price: $5.40 |
| Used Price: $3.69 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Academy Award(R)-winner Geena Davis (Best Supporting Actress -- THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST) shines as Angie, a young Brooklyn-born woman who's witty, irreverent, and irresistible! With her wild ambitions and stubborn independence, Angie won't let anyone -- or anything -- stand in the way of her dreams. When Angie finds out she's pregnant by her longtime boyfriend, she has no plans to get married and settle down. Instead, she decides it's a good time to set out and find her way in the world. As you can imagine, her unpredictable behavior drives her bewildered family and friends crazy! You're sure to fall head over heels for ANGIE -- a heartwarming story brimming with irrepressible fun!
Description of Angie:
This slice-of-life film out of Bensonhurst begins like a Working Girl rip-off: earnest and endearing woman leaves neighborhood boyfriend (James Gandolfini) to find happiness with a suave professional (Stephen Rea). But there Angie turns into a tale of self-discovery. As with Todd Graff's previous script, Used People, the characters are colorful but never seem more than broad brush stokes. What is left is an admirable acting piece by Geena Davis, who shoulders an entire movie for the first time with winning success, although many will see her mother-to-be as unrealistic. Director Martha Coolidge's (Rambling Rose) direction underscores Angie without wild mannerisms or a heavy accent, making her a memorable character that was originally to be played by Madonna. The trailers were misleading, showing clips from the back half of the movie. It's more about independence than motherhood, and Davis stubbornly desires to be happy and on her own. Plenty of laughs thrown in, mostly from Rea's endearing loafer. Gandolfini is excellent in his first major role. --Doug Thomas
Angie Reviews:
Geena Davis stands out in this "Working Girl/Moonstruck/Juno'-blended flick 
2008-02-02 - There is nothing terribly earthshaking about the film "Angie", which is one of those slice of Brooklyn life films that follows from childhood through motherhood Miss Angela Sciarrapensieri and her decisions about life,love and relationships with family and friends.I identified so many story lines that felt queasily familiar and overdone from other films, both earlier and later.Typically, with each of these films, one leading lady shouldered the entire burden of the film to make it work: Cher in Moonstruck (Deluxe Edition),Melanie Griffith in Working Girl and recently Ellen Page in Juno, and for good measure throw in Mary Stuart Masterson in Second Time Around.Here, Geena Davis shows off her Academy Award winning skills (The Accidental Tourist) in another off-beat,sassy, no-nonsense role as a Italian Brooklyn girl whose views on relationships with boyfriends,family,school-days chums and pregnancy are brought to their breaking and breaking-up points.Davis is the "lynch pin" of "Angie" and she is outstanding.This film will be enjoyed solely for looking at a consummate actress doing great work.The story is unusual in that not all of Angie's choices are what you think they are going to be, thus making this delightful and not as totally predictable as the aforementioned flicks.Angie is full of surprises and never leaves this film dull at any moment.Co-stars a very young James Gandolfini The Sopranos - The Complete Series (Seasons 1-6.2), Stephen Rea The End of the Affair and Aida Turturro.
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2006-03-25 - Martha Coolidge also directed "Rambling Rose" with Laura Dern, which was much the better picture. This was nowhere near that level. It was very soap opera-ish, with an "Oprah" feel to it. Melodramic, a woman's picture. If you like Geena Davis, you're in. But there was one line at the end - - "I figure everybody's got something broken in their lives. It's up to the less broken to take care of the more broken" - - that is memorable. "Angie's" ending was too warm and perfect. There were some good scenes, but the whole crisis was set up by Angie's dad, who never really told her about her mother. Too contrived. Her feelings about motherhood were good, though. And I liked her stepmom. She had a lot of good lines.
All Chick, No Flick
2004-03-07 - I'm not quite sure why anyone felt it was necessary to make this movie. This is the story of Angie, a young Brooklyn woman of Italian descent who leads a rather routine, bridge-and-tunnel sort of existence as an office worker who commutes to her job in Manhattan. She has a circle of friends who seem to lead lives which are more or less similar to hers, the closest of whom are Tina, her overweight, lifelong buddy, and Vinnie, her plumber de facto fiance who has been her steady since high school. Angie and her father both carry the scars of having been deserted by Angie's mom--an incident shrouded in mystery due to her father's reluctance to discuss the actual events. Angie often ponders her mother's desertion, which eventually motivates her to take drastic action near the end of the film.
We're given to understand that Angie isn't quite as happy as she should be with the routine of her life. When she discovers that she's pregnant, she--realizing it's probably her last chance to do something different--decides to go for broke and not marry the doting Vinnie. She finds her catalyst in Noel, a glib Irishman who practices international law and who has picked her up in Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which Angie is visiting alone, having been unable to convince the boorish-but-sweet Vinnie to accompany her. Noel takes Angie's eventual revelation of her pregnancy in stride, carrying on a part-time affair with her right up to her admittance to the delivery room, at which point he abruptly dumps her. Angie's child has a birth defect and refuses to nurse from her. After walking in on her loathsome stepmother nursing the baby, our overwhelmed heroine flees to Texas in search of her mother, closure, and enhanced self-awareness. The ending is rather predictable.
I can't imagine that anyone male (at least of my acquaintance) would find anything to enjoy in this film. It's concerned only with female issues and addresses them on a rather superficial level. I also found it quite unbelievable that Noel would hang around as long as he did; in fact, what possessed him to get involved beyond a possible one-night stand in the first place? Angie is a very pretty, wisecracking young woman, but she's coarse, somewhat vulgar, and a potential embarrassment every time she opens her mouth (a contemporary Stella Dallas?), whereas Noel, despite the eventual revelation of his caddishness, is a cultured professional. Is the clue to his infatuation to be found, perhaps, in his truly appalling haircut? No answer is ever given, although we're nearly as shocked as Angie at his unbelievably callous defection (it transpires that he's married and "kind of" separated, presumably to someone more appropriate but less attractive).
In fact, this entire movie stretches credulity. Post-partum crazies aside, are we really expected to believe that a working-class American girl with a loving, supportive family is going to abandon a newborn?
This film's saving grace lies in its performances; all are excellent. Davis' Angie is appealingly played (although her "Bensonhurst-ese" is a tad over the top) and the support characters shine as well. Jerry Goldsmith's soundtrack is, predictably, delightful. The problem is that despite strong performances, these characters are caricatures and the story is one-dimensional and rather ridiculous, strewn with cliches and the occasional silly platitude that's meant to sound profound. This one can be avoided with no great sense of loss.
Incidentally, for my money, the "Santa scene" is one of the most tasteless performances ever captured on celluloid. Perhaps this was the final straw that broke the camel's back for Noel? We'll never know for sure.
REAL EMOTIONS ABOUND 
2004-02-12 - I found this to be an endearing movie. I didn't want to watch, but couldn't turn away from Angie's pain during her self discovery. She has made poor decisions and was always looking for the greener grass, but comes to find she is her own worst enemy, and best friend.
"Angela Scacciapensieri" 
2003-08-14 - Originally intended for Madonna (who can't act & would have definately STUNK!), this was an excellent role for Geena Davis. "Angie" is a film about an Italian/American woman from the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, N.Y. Her mom left her when she was a child & because of this she has a romanticized notion of her mother & a deep fear of abandonment. She wants more out of life than her working class plumber boyfriend (and father of her child) can offer her so she falls in love with a lawyer from Ireland while pregnant(someone as far removed from her Brooklyn world as possible!) After the baby is born, the lawyer dumps her & she also feels rejected by her son (you'll have to see the movie to find out why) so she heads off to Texas to finally face her mom for some type of closure. Yes, this character's angst & situations can be overwhelming , but real life can be like that too sometimes. The musical score, by Jerry Goldsmith, is excellent (particularly "Angie's Theme") & compliments the movie wonderfully. The movie also has a knack for capturing the New York Italian/American experience authentically. At times, "Angie" feels like a hybrid of other films ("Working Girl", "Beaches", "Saturday Night Fever", & "Moonstruck") but it works.
