The Face of an Angel - review

Documentary & film-maker Thomas travels to Sienna to find inspiration during the trial of a pair of students accused of murdering their fellow student and British roommate.

Teaming up with true crime writer & journalist Simone (Kate Beckinsale), Thomas learns about the angles of the case from those closest as well as fellow reporters. But with minds already made up about whether the pair are innocent or guilty, Thomas resolves to learn the truth about the case and explore the real Sienna with the help of another British student Melanie.

As he learns more about the dark side of Sienna, Thomas is unsure what angle he wishes to portray in his film and finds himself losing his backing with his mind distracted by his daughter back home in America and flying back and forth to England.

But with everyone’s focus being on the accused girls rather than the victim, Thomas immerses himself in the local nightlife & opens himself up to the opinions of local people, soon finding himself falling into the wrong crowd in a town where someone is hiding a terrible secret.

Based on true events and dedicated to the memory of Meredith Kercher, this movie was raw and didn’t do it for me. Seeming more like a student film with a low budget, there was too much skipping about between countries and with scenes set in Thomas’s imagination; I quite easily lost where I was in the story.

While I applaud the dedication to a real life murder victim, this movie hasn’t done anything to enhance her memory. If anything, it put more emphasis on the accused murderers pushing them further into the spotlight rather than highlighting the life that was lost.