Angel and Tony
A slow-burner of a hit in its native France, Angel and Tony is a small-scale drama about an oddball romance.

A slow-burner of a hit in its native France, Angel and Tony is a small-scale drama about an oddball romance. Angel (Clotilde Hesme) is a young woman attempting to rebuild her life. She has been in prison but is now on parole, living near her estranged young son – who is being raised by his grandparents) on the Normandy Coast. It’s here, through a personal ad, that she meets Tony (Gregory Gadebois), an older and chunkier fisherman who lives with his mother. At first, the two appear to have nothing in common – Angel is troubled and struggling to get her life together. He is settled and a creature of routine. She is streetwise and he is strictly rural. On the surface, they are the proverbial chalk and cheese, but at some deeper level they clearly see something in one another.

Tony resists Angel’s initial, crass attempts to have sex, and instead offers her a job and a room in his home – to the initial disapproval of his mother, who finds herself having to teach the younger woman how to gut fish. At the same time, Angel is trying to regain custody of her young son, despite the fact that he is wary of having anything to do with her. Perhaps Tony is the anchor that Angel needs in her life?

The debut feature from writer/director Alix Delaporte, Angel and Tony is an odd and slight little movie. Not a huge amount happens, and some may find the pace a little on the languid side. However, there’s something authentic and real in its tale of everyday romance and the meeting of two lonely souls. You can’t help but find yourself rooting for the couple, despite Angel’s sometimes misguided behaviour. The ending may come across as a little too convenient and contrived, but nonetheless, this remains a bittersweet Gallic drama.