An Angel at My Table

An Angel at My Table follows the New Zealand writer Janet Frame from a poor, crowded childhood through years of struggle with mental illness and into her life as an author. Growing up sensitive and withdrawn, she loses siblings to tragedy and finds comfort in reading and in writing poetry and stories. After a suicide attempt she enters psychiatric care, where doctors treat her for schizophrenia and she spends eight years in institutions, including a period in which she is considered for experimental surgery. Her writing brings her recognition while she is still a patient, and that success helps her move toward life outside the hospital, including a later stay in Europe.

Jane Campion directed this 1990 drama, her second feature after Sweetie and the film that came before The Piano in her career. Laura Jones wrote the screenplay, adapted from Frame's autobiographical writings, and Bridget Ikin produced it. Kerry Fox plays the adult Frame, with Alexia Keogh as the child and Karen Fergusson as the teenager; Iris Churn and Kevin J. Wilson appear as her parents. The production involved Film4, Television New Zealand and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and it runs 158 minutes.

On IMDb-style critical measures the film holds a 7.7/10 from 22 critics, while on TMDB it stands at 7/10 from 193 votes, indicating a well-received drama whose reputation rests on Campion's direction and Fox's central performance.