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Title Angel Baby
Released 1995
Production Year 1993
Director Michael Rymer
Countries of Production Australia
Comments I think the film is a successful portrait of a tragic love story. Rymer wrote and edited the script over the course of several years, and it took him a long time to get the production started, due to financial issues. Though I think that played out well at the end, because this allowed him to carry the script to a whole new level, deepen his research, and get experienced people like the producers White and Shteinman involved in the project. Ultimately this increase in quality also allowed them to bring the lead actress Jacqueline McKenzie on board, who was already established through her role "Romper Stomper" at that time, and who's incredible performance is really what carries the film. The film wound up grossing over one million dollars. Overall you can say that his debut film "Angel Baby" was Michael Rymer's breakthrough movie, after years of personal and professional struggle. This opened the door for him to Hollywood, where he went on to produce the popular TV series "Battlestar Galactica" among other projects of his.
Synopsis "In this unusual romantic drama from Australia, Harry (John Lynch) and Kate (Jacqueline McKenzie) are both patients at a psychiatric care facility. While in therapy, the two meet and fall in love, in spite of their troubled pasts. Despite the potential complications they might foresee with the relationship, Harry's main sources of support, his brother Morris (Colin Friels) and Morris's wife Louise (Deborra-Lee Furness), are more concerned with Harry's stability and happiness than anything else, and they soon give him their blessing to marry Kate. However, it soon becomes obvious that love does not conquer all. Kate becomes pregnant, and her doctors try to persuade her to have an abortion. They believe that her mental illness could be passed along to her child, that she would not make a fit mother, and that her medication for schizophrenia could have a harmful effect on the fetus. Kate is convinced that the angel Astral speaks to her, and that the child she carries is his earthly incarnation; she refuses to have an abortion, but compromises by not taking her medication while pregnant. Harry stops taking his as well, but the couple's happiness is short-lived when their increasing instability leads to tragic consequences (Mark Deming)"
tags: afi Astral Films Australian Film Commision Australian Film Finance Corporation Australian Film Industry Battlestar Galactica Beyond Films Cinepix Colin Friels Deborra-Lee Furness Drama Jacqueline McKenzie John Lynch Melbourne Meridien Films Michael Rymer Romance Romper Stomper Schizophrenia 
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