Review of The Strange Case of Angelica (2010) by J.j. W — 21 Jun 2012

A strange film that's actually not really all that strange in an era where strange films are quite common. de OIiveira's visual craft is superb. In fact, the film warrants a profound study just solely on the visuals alone.

But it's a shame that this is a film and not a painting as the visuals do not make up for the lack of coherency in the writing. The dialogue is really horrendous at times with on-the-nose exposition seeking to explain and elaborate on what we already know and the overarching plot is rather silly.

The premise of seeing ghosts through a camera is an interesting one, but de Oliviera doesn't develop this at all and the ghost sightings become more annoying than intriguing. Furthermore, the romance between Issac and Angelica is immensely contrived.

The characters have literally no reason to be in love with each other and Issac just spends most of the film wandering around without much purpose. The entire concept of "love at first sight" is a bit shaky at best and de Oliviera seems to grasp on to the concept as if it's a God-sent universal truth.

Thus, Issac and Angelica's romance couldn't be more uninteresting in a film that's apparently about love. Minimalist films without a strong cause and effect can work well to communicate a theme or message: such as Blow Up.

But The Strange Case of Angelica is minimalist to a fault where too little happens and what does occur happens with too little logic and reasoning behind it. Ultimately, de Oliviera seems to have an idea for a film and all he did was shoot that idea without further thought.

A film can lack a traditional story structure, but it cannot lack a purpose. The Strange Case of Angelica seems to lack both.