The actors don't inhabit their roles -- they're trapped by them, forced to change behavior in bizarre unjustified fashion and spout dialog that consists mostly of platitudes.
Comment
02/01/02
A Rumor of Angels (2002)
34
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:29
Fresh:10
Rotten:19
Average Rating:4.7/10
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Peter O'Fallon's heartwarming drama tells the uplifting story of an unlikely friendship between an emotionally scarred young boy and a mournful older woman. Twelve-year-old James Neubauer (Trevor... [More]
Starring: Trevor Morgan, Vanessa Redgrave, Catherine McCormack, Ray Liotta
Director: Peter O'Fallon
Reviews for A Rumor of Angels
That death is merely a transition is a common tenet in the world's religions. This deeply spiritual film taps into the meaning and consolation in afterlife communications.
02/01/02
Long on twinkly-eyed close-ups and short on shame.
02/01/02
Given the fact that virtually no one is bound to show up at theatres for it, the project should have been made for the tube.
02/03/02
The screenplay by James Eric, James Horton and director Peter O'Fallon ... is so pat it makes your teeth hurt.
02/01/02
What's most offensive isn't the waste of a good cast, but the film's denial of sincere grief and mourning in favor of bogus spiritualism.
01/31/02
Decent but dull.
01/30/02
Short-story quaint, touchingly mending a child's pain for his dead mother via communication with an old woman straight out of Eudora Welty.
01/28/02
Its gentle, touching story creeps into your heart.
01/31/02
As A Rumor of Angels reveals itself to be a sudsy tub of supernatural hokum, not even Ms. Redgrave's noblest efforts can redeem it from hopeless sentimentality.
01/31/02
Top CriticRumor, a muddled drama about coming to terms with death, feels impersonal, almost generic.
02/01/02
Top CriticThe film's darker moments become smoothed over by an overwhelming need to tender inspirational tidings, especially in the last few cloying moments.
02/05/02
Denver should not get the first and last look at one of the most triumphant performances of Vanessa Redgrave's career. It deserves to be seen everywhere.
02/01/02
The problem with movies about angels is they have a tendency to slip into hokum. A Rumor of Angels doesn't just slip -- it avalanches into forced fuzziness.
02/01/02
A spiritual exploration of sorts, offering a message of hope that resonates.
02/01/02
There are times when A Rumor of Angels plays like an extended episode of Touched by an Angel -- a little too much dancing, a few too many weeping scenes -- but I liked its heart and its spirit.
02/04/02
No amount of good intentions is able to overcome the triviality of the story.
01/31/02
If there was any doubt that Peter O'Fallon didn't have an original bone in his body, A Rumor of Angels should dispel it.
02/01/02
This cloying, voices-from-the-other-side story is hell.
02/15/02
For those with an aversion to such sentimentality, especially when associated with the spirit world, Vanessa Redgrave is still reason enough to see A Rumor of Angels.
02/26/02
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