A woman grieving over the death of her daughter loses grip of reality when she begins to think her girl may still be alive.
“Angel of Mine” delves into the emotional baggage that stems from a huge loss through death as well as the psychological burden of moving forward. Noomi Rapace stars as Lizzie, a grieving parent who has lost her only daughter as well as a part of her own identity. With divorce being a part of the collateral damage, she struggles with the responsibility of still being a mother to her young son and finding a way to prove to a very-present ex, Mike (Luke Evans), that she is capable of taking him head-on, and will fight tooth and nail to hold on to whatever is left of her slowly-dismantling purpose in life.
After a few years and several instances in which she fails to convince her son Thomas (Finn Little) that she is capable of keeping him in her care, he starts to feel like his dad’s insistence that he take over the parental duties is probably the best thing for all of them. To make his case more credible, Lizzie has taken on a problematic interest in the neighbor’s daughter, Lola and is thoroughly convinced that it is actually her daughter who she insisted never actually died. While father and son painstakingly try to convince Lizzie that Lola (Annika Whiteley) isn’t her daughter, she goes full steam ahead in taking ownership with random opportunities to be the best mother to “her” daughter. The greatest problem is that the girl’s mother, Claire (Yvonne Strahovski) isn’t having it. The real action starts as secrets from both women become the foundation of their disgust with one another and makes the entire episode of scary events eerily realistic, yet psychologically depressing.
While director Kim Farrant has a strong cast, Noomi Rapace (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Yvonne Strahovski (“The Handmaid’s Tale”), and Luke Evans (“The Fate of the Furious”), who all play strong roles in this movie, the lows and highs are almost too widely spread apart to appreciate the full impact of their range in this thriller. While dysfunction through tragedy is a reoccurring theme through physical loss, this film’s look at the element of psychological ownership that goes along with it is something that truly requires a bit more consideration.
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