Angel Heart
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 In Alan Parker's ANGEL HEART, based on the novel FALLING ANGEL by William Hjortsberg, a New York City gumshoe is hired to find an aging blues singer. Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) follows clues from the ominous ghettos of Harlem to the witchy backwoods of Louisiana, where he takes up with Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet), the beautiful young daughter of a voodoo priestess, whom he believes will be able to shed light on the growing mystery surrounding the missing musician. As Angel closes in on the truth of the case, his contacts start turning up dead. He begins to suspect he might be next. Parker (MISSISSIPPI BURNING) threads a commentary on the limitations of modern Western society into his sensual, suspenseful thriller. As the story unfolds, Angel relies less and less on his failing, overwhelmed rational mind (and handgun) and more on Epiphany's ancient mojo. Rourke captures the unraveling protagonist perfectly, and Bonet adds an erotic and mysterious edge with her performance. Robert De Niro is both funny and malevolent as Angel's mysterious client, Louis Cyphre. Shimmering with a beguiling mist of the macabre, ANGEL HEART provides an unexpectedly haunting dose of gothic noir.
Hired by a law firm representing the sinister Louis Cyphre, private investigator Harry Angel goes in search of missing WWII veteran Johnny Favourite, amongst the sweaty slums of New Orleans. But the further he delves into the case the more the evidence makes no sense at all. Trust Alan Parker, a master with the stippled strokes and dappled sunbeams of 80s ad-atmospherics, to coat this overwrought but memorable noir-horror nonsense in super-soupy layers of Southern Gothic window-dressing. The film oozes along with a superficial sense of unease, leaden with overcooked metaphors: from hoodoo chicken heads to the hollow clang of descending elevators. Blood is everywhere. The film looks and feels unwell. Parker adapted William Hjortsberg’s novel Falling Angel (the same writer who’d helped conceive the dark fantasy of Legend with Parker’s compatriot Ridley Scott) himself and was, obviously, more tickled by the visual opportunities than any great strengths of the story. Yet, he has cast well. When you need a boozy, sleazy, loose-hinged gumshoe (think Sam Spade without the self-control) whom else to call upon than the leathery, anti-charm of Mickey Rourke? He slumps, heavy-cast, through the twisty mechanics of the plot, most of which are pretty inexplicable, bodies piling up in his wake. What, for instance, does petit Lisa Bonnet see in this lascivious lump of an anti-hero? But soon enough they are doing the carnal dance while coated in blood and viscera (it’s that kind of film). And Robert De Niro, while hardly busting a gut, still has the look of a thousand secrets lurking behind his dead eyes. The director was never going to win any points for subtlety, beyond even its sticky style, the script rests on a increasing number of really stupid fillips of wordplay – if Harry Angel had been any better at the Sunday cryptic crossword he would have saved himself a whole lot of heartache. Or, at least, got to the nub of things a bit quicker. He does however make it compelling, and at the big twist, he has played a confident enough game of murky hoodwinking, like Agatha Christie overdosing on Tequila and downers. A diabolical treat with Rourke and De Niro in fine form. Mickey Rourke ... Harry Angel Robert De Niro ... Louis Cyphre Lisa Bonet ... Epiphany Proudfoot Charlotte Rampling ... Margaret Krusemark Stocker Fontelieu ... Ethan Krusemark Brownie McGhee ... Toots Sweet Michael Higgins ... Dr. Albert Fowler Elizabeth Whitcraft ... Connie Eliott Keener ... Det. Sterne Charles Gordone ... Spider Simpson Dann Florek ... Herman Winesap Kathleen Wilhoite ... Nurse George Buck ... Izzy Judith Drake ... Izzy's Wife Gerald Orange ... Pastor John (as Gerald L. Orange) IMDB Trailer Download Torrent 
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