Posted: Sun., Dec. 31, 1989, 11:00pm PT

An Angel at My Table

(New Zealand - Australia)

By Variety Staff

Hibiscus. Director Jane Campion; Producer Bridget Ikin; Writer Laura Jones; Camera Stuart Dryburgh Editor Veronica Haussler; Music Don McGlashan Art Grant Major

Kerry Fox Alexia Keogh Karen Fergusson Melina Bernecker Glynis Angell William Brandt

Jane Campion comes up with a touching and memorable biography of New Zealand author Janet Frame, originally made as a three-part TV miniseries (each part 52 minutes). In the 1950s, Frame spent eight years in a mental home undergoing shock treatment for wrongly diagnosed schizophrenia.

Part one, To the Island, deals with the writer's childhood in a rural community in the country's South Island. Tragedy strikes early when Janet's beloved older sister, Myrtle (Melina Bernecker), drowns in a swimming accident. As a teen (Karen Fergusson), Janet undergoes a painful puberty and becomes exceptionally shy.

In part two, An Angel at My Table, Janet (Kerry Fox) goes to university but is unable to cope with practical teaching. Further tragedy enters her life when her younger sister and best friend, Isabel (Glynis Angell), also drowns. She spends the next eight years in shock treatment.

With her first novel also published, Janet, in part three (The Envoy from Mirror City), travels on a literary grant to London and then Spain. She rents a room in a fishing village and has her first (and only?) love affair with a young poet (William Brandt).

A potentially painful and harrowing film is imbued with gentle humor and great compassion, which makes every character come vividly alive. Campion constructs the film in a series of short, sometimes elliptical scenes.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1990. Running time: 156 MIN.