The Problem with Angèle de Villefort (2024 Movie)
The Problem with Angèle de Villefort (2024 Movie)
Sadly, "The Angèle Problem" falls apart the more you scrutinize it. This whole character and scenario just begs for my Snark Monster to come out and play! Logic!Fail! highlighted in dark red from here onwards. .
Dressed like a Pirate Lady, she sees her brother Villefort after Edmond is arrested.
Ummm...why?
In that getup, She tries to blackmail Villefort to release Edmond, or else she'll tell everyone about his mistress "Victoria/Hermine" and unborn baby. The mistress is very far along in her pregnancy. We can see that. Villefort strangles her unconscious, and Danglars sells her into prostitution. Fernand and "Victoria" just stand around and watch. And now that I have my Thinking Cap on, it's Holy Hell! Why prostitution? She'll be seeing clients. She can talk! Some of them might even be Bonapartists, and she can tell them all about Villefort and Danglars! Then they can send a hitman out! If Villefort needed to keep his secrets safe, then send her to D'if without trial... he already did that with Edmond! And it worked, so do it again, Villefort! OMFG, what a derp! moment! Within several weeks, she "escapes" and doesn't immediately see her "friends" to kill Villefort and Danglars. If I was in her situation, I would! Or expose Villefort's mistress and still-gestating baby, like she threatened to. Why not? Isn't she angry? Outraged? Y'know, like "You messed with me, now F- around and Find Out"? Instead she snoops around Paris and follows Victoria, now at term, who's walking around town in snowy weather like it's a normal day and that very night, Victoria gives birth! Angèle intends to stab Villefort (she should have had her "friends" do that!). She sees him burying a box with a newborn and she takes the baby. Her voiceover says she "chose [the baby's] life" instead of Villefort's death. An undetermined amount of time passes. She had to spend at least some time with the kid, because he knows and bonds with her, right? 3 years? 4 years? Otherwise, if Andre (the child) was sent off to an orphanage as a baby, he wouldn't remember her later and would go, "Angèle who? Why should I care?"
She's captured and brought back into prostitution, and the now-free Edmond (as the Count) locates her, after 15 years of his own imprisonment at D'if. She's dying, maybe of a STD. And why did her eyebrows fall out? She wants the Count to save the child, Andre. So the Count goes to a boarding school (?) and locates Andre, who has to be at least 14 or 15 years old. Andre knows who Angèle is, therefore confirming my hypothesis that she spent several years with him and raised him! But wait! Security in that brothel isn't very tight. She's not chained up, and her room has a large window. It's no D'if. So if she spent 10 years in involuntary sex slavery, couldn't she have at least tried to escape again when she was healthier? And maybe not dress as a Pirate Lady and so easily recognized?
Offscreen, Andre sees Angèle and they say their last goodbyes. The
ember of fury and revenge is kindled in young Andre's heart. Andre grows up as the Count's ward for 5 years and becomes a loose cannon. He really was intent on smashing Albert's skull during the mugging! But the Count tells Andre to "Stop!". What does Andre have against Albert? Once newHaydee is introduced to us, the audience, we see various flashbacks where she and Andre grow to adulthood and develop a fondness for each other. But both of them are wounded souls with a Dark Side, and the Count doesn't seem to realize that it's a bad idea to rely on either of them to "stick to the Plan". Much, much later, Andre exposes Villefort as his baby-daddy in court. And since you're there, are there more beans to spill, Andre? Like, why didn't the Master Plan include a salacious public tell-all about how Villefort worked with Danglars to sell his own sister into sex-slavery? That would get tongues a-waggin' and the King himself would be very interested in a further investigation of his Chief Prosecutor! But nooooooo, let's make it simple. Andre goes rogue and stabs Villefort to death "for Angèle", but it was Danglars who sold Angèle into prostitution, so why didn't he try to kill Danglars too? And Fernand, since he was almost going to beat Fernand's son Albert to death earlier? Just kill 'em all, Andre! |
So yeah, Angèle's pitiful character arc reveals that she's "all tough talk and no do". Her early cocksure, piss n' vinegar attitude was just for show and she never followed through with any of her empty threats. After she escaped from prostitution, she had the chance and really could have messed up Villefort and Danglars, either by legal means or by various illegal means.
The failure of the "strong female character" trope turns out to be even more offensive than not having a female character at all! Just have two men, Noirtier and Bertuccio take their proper spots in the story! That fixes everything! Why was this shit even tried?
FAIL.
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