An approach that avoids the cliches of whodunnits and the legal minefield of writing about an ongoing court case, instead meditating on love, loss and the subjective nature of truth.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 18, 2021

We always remain on or near the impressionistic, journalistic surface.

Full Review | Feb 26, 2021

This wannabe sexy thriller takes itself so seriously that it's almost a comedy. Almost.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 10, 2018

A sprawling, often provocative exploration of the ethics and competing interests involved in the coverage of a case like Elizabeth's murder.

Full Review | Dec 12, 2015

Occasionally Winterbottom delivers a haunting, effective moment, giving a hint of a different, more compelling film. But then it's back to the self-righteous, self-indulgent, muddled metaphors.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 14, 2015

... drains most of the suspense by downplaying the whodunit aspect of the case in favor of a heavy-handed procedural about media ethics.

Full Review | Jul 1, 2015

The Face of an Angel takes too many detours and breaches its viewers' trust too many times to be taken seriously.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Jun 25, 2015

built on the intriguing idea of using a thinly fictionalized version of the notorious Amanda Knox trial to explore how real-life events are transformed into art, but the resulting film gets muddy and misguided very quickly

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 25, 2015

...the film is contrived, confusing, and, despite dense plotting, severely lacking in emotional or thematic depth.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 22, 2015

The film does occasionally show a pulse when it tries to re-imagine the life of the victim - when it turns the tables on the mystery and tries to become a film about love and life, instead of doom and death. But it's too little, too late, and too lame.

Full Review | Jun 20, 2015

this one -- inspired by the real-life 2007 Amanda Knox/Meredith Kercher case -- seems content to wander off into meta-ness, even if it never arrives anywhere.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 19, 2015

To get at the heart of what's wrong with "The Face of an Angel" all you need to do is consider the professional stones it takes to adapt the Amanda Knox case into yet another movie about the existential/amorous crises of a white male filmmaker.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 19, 2015

There's a great deal of intelligent material here. Winterbottom mounts a harsh attack on our fascination with killers and our tendency to forget the victim. Yet it's overlaid with so much navel-gazing, it's hard to take.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 19, 2015

Rambling, frustrating and wholly uninvolving, "The Face of an Angel" swarms with ideas that have no place to land.

Full Review | Jun 19, 2015

Like the floundering filmmaker at its center, "The Face of an Angel" never seems sure of what story it wants to tell.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2015

[A] silly metamovie based on the Amanda Knox murder case.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2015

Winterbottom takes the tabloid zip out of a lurid story of sex and death without adding anything of substance to compensate.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jun 18, 2015

An unusually wan effort from Michael Winterbottom.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2015

Past Winterbottom films have turned "real life" into both comedy and tragedy. The Face Of An Angel turns it into a directionless skulk.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jun 18, 2015

The Face of an Angel may not be like any other whodunit you've seen, but it's also only superficially smarter than the genre it defines itself against.

Full Review | Jun 16, 2015