Sorry Angel

Christophe Honoré’s gay period romance deals with a somber subject but manages a tone that is infused with lightness as well as darkness. Set in 1993, Sorry Angel focuses on Jacques (Pierre Deladonchamps), a sophisticated Parisian writer who finds much more than he expected when he travels to Rennes for a performance of one of his plays. Dropping into a cinema, he meets Arthur (Vincent Lacoste), a college student wrestling with his sexual identity. Arthur is immediately smitten with Jacques, but the older man is cautious: Jacques has AIDS, and an ex-lover now in the final stage of the disease comes to spend his last days with him. Jacques also has a young son, who he dearly loves and is understandably depressed at the thought of leaving. When Arthur abruptly moves to Paris, Jacques tries to keep him at arm’s length, but the attraction between the pair proves irresistible, even as Jacques’s health deteriorates. While it might sound as if Sorry Angel is an absolute downer, Honoré’s script features considerable wit along with the pathos, and his direction exhibits some of the spirit of the French New Wave. Deladonchamps and Lacoste have genuine chemistry, and the supporting cast members skillfully create rounded characters in a few brief strokes. Although the film is overlong and sometimes tends to meander, it treats its potentially weepy story with admirable grace and style. Recommended. (F. Swietek)