Enquête mortelle

Eric Roberts plays the fiance of Diane Lane who discovers some unpleasant realities about his future father in law played by George C Scott. While the premise, exposing a nazi collaborator, is a good one, the film never really builds any suspense. On a scale of one to ten.. 6

I thought Eric Roberts and Diane performances were trite in this film. Most of the time I couldn't wait for them to get off the screen. However I truely enjoyed Vyto Ruginis in this film as always. Scott was okay as well

It really is a shame, as "Descending Angel" is a very good film...but by the end of the movie, it degenerates into a stupid action flick. Up until then, I really enjoyed it and wanted more and more.

Michael (Eric Roberts) is engaged to Irina (Diane Lane). So it's not surprising that she is taking him home to introduce to her father, Florian (George C. Scott). Florian seems like a swell guy...which makes it all the weirder when a stranger approaches Michael and tells him his prospective father-in-law is a war criminal! At first, he doesn't believe it....but over time he comes to realize that the father is a monster.

Up until the big confrontation scenes near the end, the story was excellent. But there were two huge problems. First, Irina's reaction AND Michael's reaction to her reaction came off as hard to believe at best. Second, and more importantly, the ending is simply stupid. Despite Florian being a dangerous character with very dangerous friends, Michael deals with this in the silliest and unbelievable manner...so much that my daughter and I found ourselves laughing. Sad...it could have been wonderful...instead, it's a flawed but watchable film...with good performances by Roberts (who, oddly, is cast third even though he is THE star) and Scott.

By the way, the opening credits are very explicit...and you see a LOT of DIane Lane. Odd, as the rest of the film has no nudity at all and it did seem out of place.

If you ignore an ending that seems both rushed and highly unlikely, "Descending Angel" is totally acceptable, with a fine George C. Scott performance. Eric Roberts is going to be marrying Scott's daughter, and the movie revolves around an uneasy meeting with his future father in-law. When Roberts suspicion begins to build that Scott was part of a WW2 massacre of Jews, his fiancé, Diane Lane, is torn between her powerful father and her love for Roberts. Although the film is not perfect, mostly because of the flawed conclusion, it is different enough to maintain interest. Recommended for fans of George C. Scott, and Eric Roberts. - MERK

In Descending Angel, Diane Lane comes from Romanian descent. Her father, George C. Scott, immigrated to America after WWII, and he's a very powerful member of the community. When she brings her fully American fiancé, Eric Roberts, to meet him, there's quite a bit of tension. Eric not only sees her in a different role, that of doting child, but he has to absorb a completely different culture. And, to make things more complicated, he senses that George has a shady past - even though his "sense" only comes from one disgruntled man and everyone else he talks to, including a priest, backs up George's character.

Eric Roberts' character just wasn't likable. He's reckless, smug, and naïve, thinking he can double-cross a very powerful man in the community and get away with it. Without having even one-tenth of the full information, he forms a judgmental opinion and runs with it. He automatically assumes George is a villain, and he does undercover dirty work to try to expose what he believes and turn Diane against her family. Who does he think he is? He's an outsider who doesn't understand the Romanian culture or Diane's relationship to her family. Diane has a great line when she disagrees with his behavior: "What are you, the conscience of the world? When did you care about (*all this*) before?" She asks why he's acting this way, knowing he's deliberately destroying their relationship. Eric responds, "Because it's right." According to whom, I ask? Eric is the interloper, a virtual stranger who makes it his mission to take away a daughter from her father. He claims George is trying to dominate, isolate, and control Diane, but isn't that exactly what he's doing?

I was surprised by the relatively graphic nature of the bedroom scenes, given that this was a television movie made in 1990. Those who still see Diane as the little girl from A Little Romance might feel uncomfortable as she sheds her clothes and rolls around with her costar. I liked her 1980s hairstyle, and I appreciated George's attempt at a Romanian accent, but that was about it. I wouldn't recommend this movie, as the ending is especially disappointing to those who had the patience to sit through the entire running time.