---
title: "An Angel at My Table"
year: 1990
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/an-angel-at-my-table"
fi1m_id: "an-angel-at-my-table"
imdb_id: "tt0099040"
tmdb_id: 2891
wikidata_id: "Q1304431"
fi1m_score: 87
critics_score: 80
critics_reviews: 7
published: "2026-09-13"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:14.634614+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# An Angel at My Table (1990)

Directed by Jane Campion · 2h 38m · MPA R · Drama, History

## Identity

An Angel at My Table

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/an-angel-at-my-table
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** an-angel-at-my-table
- **IMDb ID:** tt0099040
- **TMDB ID:** 2891
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1304431
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099040/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/2891, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1304431

**Fi1m score: 87** · Critics 80 from 7 reviews

*In a sentence:* An awkward woman gets a whole biography without having to become good company

> Jane Campion makes Janet Frame’s autobiographies into a patient, moving film that lets its subject remain difficult. Kerry Fox rewards the attention, though the succession of brief episodes sometimes leaves us wishing for longer scenes.

## Synopsis

Janet Frame grows up in rural New Zealand, where poverty and shyness shape her childhood. Alexia Keogh plays the young Janet, Karen Fergusson takes her through adolescence, and Kerry Fox plays her as an adult. Jane Campion’s adaptation of Frame’s autobiographies follows Janet as she tries to find a place for herself and give expression to her experience. Iris Churn and Kevin J. Wilson play her parents. Adapted by Laura Jones, the story follows a woman whose difficulties with other people accompany her life as a writer.

## Review

Jane Campion’s *An Angel at My Table* is a moving biography that takes the trouble to stay interested in someone who can be difficult company. We recommend it warmly, with a reservation about its habit of moving on just as a scene has begun to settle. Laura Jones adapts Janet Frame’s autobiographies without making every incident announce its importance. Childhood anxiety and adult awkwardness get the attention usually reserved for the great turning points in a writer’s life.

Alexia Keogh plays Janet as a child, and Karen Fergusson takes her through adolescence. The casting works because we recognise a continuing watchfulness, without feeling that either performer has been instructed to copy the other. We were moved by Keogh’s embarrassment, because Campion gives a child’s discomfort time and attention instead of treating it as a stage to be hurried through. These passages understand how much effort simply being among other people can require, particularly when nobody thinks there is anything to be frightened of.

Kerry Fox does not make the adult Janet easy company. She lets hesitations remain uncomfortable and gives intelligence none of the brisk assurance that films so often attach to it. We have to wait for this woman, and Fox makes that waiting interesting. The humour helps: Janet is allowed to be difficult without every difficult moment becoming a solemn statement about the pain of being different.

Stuart Dryburgh’s cinematography is particularly effective at keeping our attention on the actors, with little pressure to admire their surroundings instead. Grant Major’s production design gives the performances a believable domestic setting, avoiding the fussiness that can turn a biography into a display of period furniture. The rooms look usable. That matters when so much depends on accepting the family scenes as everyday life, with people who cannot know which experiences Janet will remember or what she will make of them.

Editor Veronika Jenet gives the brief episodes a rhythm that generally makes their incompleteness satisfying. A small incident can remain small without needing a final exchange to explain why it matters. Occasionally, though, the cutting leaves us preparing to enter another scene when we would happily have stayed in the last one. Jones’s screenplay accumulates experiences more readily than it develops some of them. Don McGlashan’s music is welcome for its gentleness, supporting the performances without making their emotional weight seem heavier than they can bear.

The artist’s biography often starts explaining its subject before we have had time to get acquainted. Campion and Jones largely avoid that impatience, allowing Janet’s intelligence to sit alongside behaviour that is neither convenient nor especially attractive. We are not required to approve of everything about her to stay interested. It is a generous approach, and the humour saves the film from the hushed reverence that can make a life story feel like an obligation.

At 158 minutes, this needs an evening with some space around it. The occasional impatience we felt came from wanting longer with particular moments, and Fox gives the quieter passages enough interest to repay the wait. Give it an uninterrupted evening.

*Fi1m score 87, published 13 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews are uniformly warm. Most critics respond to the way Campion tells Janet Frame’s story, from a poor rural New Zealand childhood through eight years in a mental institution to her release, in short, elliptical scenes that dwell on small domestic detail rather than the big events of a life. The praise clusters around the film’s restraint: gentle humour and compassion where melodrama might have been, an unsentimental eye for childhood anxiety, and the three actresses who play Frame at different ages, with Kerry Fox as the adult Frame singled out.

The spread is narrow; nobody dislikes it. The reservations are about how much of Frame herself the film lets us see. The Los Angeles Times finds her too blankly enigmatic, never quite a full heroine. Slant Magazine thinks the film conveys the woman better than the importance of her writing. The Times, otherwise approving, finds it too long.

## Straight answers

**Is An Angel at My Table worth watching?**

*An Angel at My Table* is worth watching for anyone with a free evening and patience for a biography that lets its subject stay awkward, and we scored it 87. Kerry Fox makes the adult Janet Frame interesting without making her easy company. Its brief episodes sometimes move on too soon, and at 158 minutes it needs an uninterrupted sitting.

**How long is An Angel at My Table, and what is it rated?**

*An Angel at My Table* runs 2h 38m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and history film.

**Where can I watch An Angel at My Table in the US?**

*An Angel at My Table* is streaming on The Criterion Channel, HBO Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to rent from Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video from $3.99. It leaves HBO Max on 30 September. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is An Angel at My Table, and is it suitable for children?**

*An Angel at My Table* carries a UK 15 certificate, and its difficulty lies in adult subject matter rather than violence or scares. It is a quiet drama of childhood anxiety and grown-up awkwardness, not a film that sets out to frighten. Younger children would find little to alarm them and less to hold them; it suits teenagers and adults prepared for a slow, attentive biography.

**How does An Angel at My Table compare to The Spirit of the Beehive?**

*An Angel at My Table* and [*The Spirit of the Beehive*](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive) both take a child's private fears seriously, but Campion's film follows its subject into adulthood while Erice's stays inside a child's fascination with Frankenstein. Erice's is the more quietly unsettling and the shorter; Campion's is warmer and more generous with its awkward heroine. We recommend both, and prefer Campion's for a biography and Erice's for an atmosphere.

**What should I watch after An Angel at My Table?**

After *An Angel at My Table*, try [*My Brilliant Career*](https://film.one/film/my-brilliant-career) (1979, Fi1m 82): Another difficult young writer, with no promise of making herself agreeable. Then [*The Spirit of the Beehive*](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive) (1973, Fi1m 87): Childhood fears taken seriously, with patient attention to a child’s private understanding; and [*Pather Panchali*](https://film.one/film/pather-panchali) (1955, Fi1m 93): Family hardship observed through a child’s experience, without reducing anyone to a lesson.

### Reviews we read (7)

- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (4/4): The film engrossingly records Janet Frame's life from childhood through institutionalization and eventual release, following a talented but shy girl misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. Campion tells the story with clarity, simplicity, and attention to human detail that draws the viewer in intensely. [Read](https://rogerebert.com/reviews/an-angel-at-my-table-1991)
- **Variety**, Variety Staff (85/100, inferred): Campion delivers a touching and memorable biography of author Janet Frame, originally a TV miniseries, focusing on her misdiagnosis and years of shock treatment. The film imbues potentially harrowing material with gentle humor, great compassion, and vivid characters through short, elliptical scenes. [Read](https://variety.com/1989/film/reviews/an-angel-at-my-table-1117788722/)
- **The New York Times** (80/100, inferred): Campion's adaptation gently portrays the prickly introvert Janet Frame, who endured eight years in a mental institution before repairing her sense of self. The film follows her from rural New Zealand poverty through middle age in a packed, elliptical style that emphasizes the minutiae of her life. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/19/archives/film-jane-campions-angel-is-another-quirky-soul.html)
- **Time Out**, GA (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Campion's cinematic adaptation of Janet Frame's autobiographies, highlighting its unsentimental depiction of childhood anxieties and the thin line between normality and madness. It singles out the economically observed details and the portrayal by three actresses as profoundly moving. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/an-angel-at-my-table-1)
- **Slant Magazine**, Eric Henderson (75/100, inferred): Campion upends biopic conventions with an impressionistic, brushstroke-like approach to character that benefits from the film's episodic structure. The film excels at intimate yet epic portrayals of the lead but falls short in conveying the significance of Frame's writing. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/an-angel-at-my-table-blu-ray-review-jane-campion/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Peter Rainer (70/100, inferred): The film is easier to take than Campion's previous work but remains too blankly enigmatic, with the central character never fully emerging as a rich heroine. Campion connects with Frame's fierce solitude in extraordinary moments that no one else could create, culminating in a humane core and a balm-like final scene. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-07-05-ca-1630-story.html)
- **The Times**, Patricia Nicol (2 stars): The film sympathetically portrays Janet Frame's life from creative awakenings through misdiagnosis and to artistic success, with a superb performance by Kerry Fox as the adult Frame. Though too long, it is a rewarding work with original artistry. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/film-dvds-and-videos-6p5v78c8889)

## Details

- **Director:** Jane Campion
- **Director:** Jane Campion
- **Screenplay:** Laura Jones
- **Cinematography:** Stuart Dryburgh
- **Editor:** Veronika Jenet
- **Music:** Don McGlashan
- **Production design:** Grant Major
- **Costume design:** Glenys Jackson
- **Producer:** Bridget Ikin
- **Cast:** Kerry Fox as Janet Frame; Alexia Keogh as Janet Frame as a child; Karen Fergusson as Janet Frame as a teenager; Iris Churn as Mother; Jessie Mune as Janet Frame as a baby; Kevin J. Wilson as Father; Edith Campion as Miss Lindsay; Francesca Collins as Baby Jane
- **Runtime:** 2h 38m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 19 May 1991
- **Genres:** Drama, History
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaqhNnRYTfc

## Where to watch in the US

- The Criterion Channel: streaming
- HBO Max: streaming, leaving 2026-09-30
- Hulu: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $5.99, sd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, sd
- Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-13.*

Also available in: AU, CA, ES, FR, GB, IT, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival 1990: Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival (won)

## If you liked this

- *My Brilliant Career* (1979), Fi1m 82: Another difficult young writer, with no promise of making herself agreeable. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/my-brilliant-career.md)
- *The Spirit of the Beehive* (1973), Fi1m 87: Childhood fears taken seriously, with patient attention to a child’s private understanding. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive.md)
- *A Quiet Passion* (2016): A writer’s intelligence and prickliness survive the usual demands of a screen biography.
- *The Green Ray* (1986): For the discomfort of company, and a heroine allowed to remain awkward.
- *Pather Panchali* (1955), Fi1m 93: Family hardship observed through a child’s experience, without reducing anyone to a lesson. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/pather-panchali.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/an-angel-at-my-table