ANGIE

The movie ANGIE follows a new trend for unmarried mothers: initial distress followed by family love and acceptance. After Angie, a young woman living in the Bensonhurst Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, discovers she is pregnant, she decides not to marry her long-term boyfriend, Vinnie, but to tough it out on her own with her family’s help. The she meets Noel at an art museum, and they become sexually involved. However, after her baby comes, Noel ignores her and tells her he is separated from his wife. Angie leaves the baby at her father’s house and searches for her real mother in Texas. Discovering that her mother is mentally ill, Angie goes back to New York where she assumes the responsibility of caring for her baby. Angie reflects her new-found philosophy when she says: “Everybody’s got something broken, so the less broken in this world have to take care of the more broken.”

Unfortunately, this film will send mixed messages to many teenagers. Despite fairly good acting and Angie’s choosing to have her baby instead of aborting him, the movie’s premise is faulty in the lack of moral responsibility between Angie and Vinnie. Even her family seems to sanction their living together without benefit of marriage. The considerable foul and profane language also make the film offensive.