This unusual adult drama puts the class structures of Victorian England under a microscope with an almost literary use of metaphors and incidental details. Entomologist William Adamson (Mark Rylance) loses everything, including his precious insect collection, in a shipwreck, and is taken in by the wealthy Reverend Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp), himself a would-be researcher in the insect world. William soon begins his research anew, aided by Alabaster relative Matty Crompton (Kristin Scott Thomas), while wooing and eventually winning the hand of Alabaster’s strange daughter, Eugenia (Patsy Kensit). William ultimately finds himself entangled in family scandals involving the death of Eugenia’s previous fiancé, all the while probing deeper into the social structure of insect society. Angels And Insects’s deliberate approach may not appease all tastes, but it is nevertheless a sophisticated, multi-layered tale. Based on a short novel named Morpho Eugenia by A. S. Byatt.
The story works like the trap of some exotic insect, which decorates the entrances with sweet nectars and soft fragrances, and then prepares an acid bath inside. Notice the countless touches that show the harsh pecking order in mid-19th century Britain: the servants who turn to face the wall when a master or mistress passes; the cocky arrogance of Edgar, who feels birth has given him the right to insult his social inferiors; the repressed anger of old Sir Harald, whose insect collection replaces a great many other things he would love to pin wriggling to a cork board. – Roger Ebert
Starring Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas, Patsy Kensit.