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IMDbPro

An Angel for May

  • TV Movie
  • 20022002
  • TV-GTV-G
  • 1h 35m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
958
YOUR RATING
An Angel for May (2002)
DramaFamilyFantasy
Tom travels fifty years to the past after discovering a time machine. He meets May, a little orphan who needs help. Now that he knows his friends' fate and his own, he will try to reorder th... Read allTom travels fifty years to the past after discovering a time machine. He meets May, a little orphan who needs help. Now that he knows his friends' fate and his own, he will try to reorder the events and change their history.Tom travels fifty years to the past after discovering a time machine. He meets May, a little orphan who needs help. Now that he knows his friends' fate and his own, he will try to reorder the events and change their history.
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
958
YOUR RATING
    • Harley Cokeliss
    • Melvin Burgess(based on the novel by)
    • Peter Milligan(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Tom Wilkinson
    • Charlotte Wakefield
    • Matthew Beard
    • Harley Cokeliss
    • Melvin Burgess(based on the novel by)
    • Peter Milligan(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Tom Wilkinson
    • Charlotte Wakefield
    • Matthew Beard
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 25User reviews
    • 5Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Photos20

    An Angel for May (2002)
    An Angel for May (2002)
    An Angel for May (2002)
    An Angel for May (2002)
    An Angel for May (2002)
    An Angel for May (2002)
    Matthew Beard and Dora Bryan in An Angel for May (2002)
    Matthew Beard in An Angel for May (2002)
    Matthew Beard in An Angel for May (2002)
    Matthew Beard in An Angel for May (2002)
    Matthew Beard and Charlotte Wakefield in An Angel for May (2002)
    Matthew Beard and Charlotte Wakefield in An Angel for May (2002)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Tom Wilkinson
    Tom Wilkinson
    • Sam Wheeler
    Charlotte Wakefield
    Charlotte Wakefield
    • May (Aged 10)
    Matthew Beard
    Matthew Beard
    • Tom Collins
    Hugo Speer
    Hugo Speer
    • Bob Harris
    Matthew McNulty
    Matthew McNulty
    • Sniffer
    • (as Michael McNulty)
    Anna Massey
    Anna Massey
    • Rosie
    Angeline Ball
    Angeline Ball
    • Barbara Collins (Mom)
    Julie Cox
    Julie Cox
    • Alison Wheeler
    Richard Fleeshman
    Richard Fleeshman
    • School Team Captain
    Dora Bryan
    Dora Bryan
    • Evelyn
    James Joyce
    • Big Kid
    Daniel Mason
    • Short Hair
    Jonathan Bradd
    • Sir
    Andrew Foxcroft
    • Number 2
    Ashley Rhodes
    • Small Boy
    Bill Rodgers
    Bill Rodgers
    • Fat Man
    John Benfield
    John Benfield
    • PC Clegg
    Geraldine James
    Geraldine James
    • Susan Higgins
      • Harley Cokeliss
      • Melvin Burgess(based on the novel by)
      • Peter Milligan(screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Now You See It...
    6.1
    Now You See It...

    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Initially, during the film production, director Harley Cokeliss and screen play writer Peter Milligan (who adapted the screenplay from the novel 'An Angel for May' by Melvin Burgess) had maintained the novel's original bleak conclusion. After an ad hoc workshop with his film family, actor Tom Wilkinson urged Cokeliss to come up with an ending in which the character Tom Collins succeeded so the audience could go out feeling positive. Cokeliss and Milligan thought that was an intriguing idea. As it happened, funding for the film was held up for three months giving Cokeliss and Milligan time to think about the idea and develop a rather powerful ending message. When author Burgess was shown the new ending, he said "I wish I'd thought of that ending" which they thought was very big of him and a great complement. The novel had focused not on changing the past but on returning to change the present.
    • Alternate versions
      Determining an original length of the British film 'An Angel for May' is complicated by its playing on the film festival circuit during the second half of 2002 and having an ITV TV release 23-Dec-2002 in England without having a theatrical release. The British Board of Film Classification approved the film, in the form of a PAL format DVD from Guerilla Films, for a PG rating on 14-May-2006 with no cuts to its 102 minutes and 47 seconds total PAL run-time for all video on the DVD including a PAL video of the movie with a PAL run-time of 96 minutes and 2 seconds. PAL video runs at 50 frames per second while film projectors run at 24 film frames per second (48 PAL frames per second). Thus a film version of the movie's PAL frames would have a run-time of (96 + 2/60) * 25/24 = 100 minutes and 2 seconds, which would also be the NTSC run-time were the film converted to NTSC DVD. In 2007 distributor Feature Films for Families released 'An Angel for May' on full-frame NTSC format DVD with a 97 minute 16 second run-time including a 30 second FFFF video clip at the beginning and a 13 second FFFF video clip at the end. Subtracting the 43 seconds of FFFF video leaves 96 minutes and 33 seconds of original film run-time compared with 99 minutes and 55 seconds of original film run-time in the Guerilla Films PAL format version after the 7 second Guerilla Films video clip is subtracted. This means at least 3 minutes and 22 seconds of original film run-time in the Guerilla version was deleted from the FFFF version. Feature Films for Families has a reputation for buying distribution rights to family movies and distributing an edited version with segments of any scene or dialogue cut that might cause young children to ask awkward questions of their parents. One example of FFFF cuts in 'An Angel for May' is an early scene in the police station where 12-year old Tom has been taken by officers who pick him up on the freeway trying to hitchhike to London. The first cut starts just before it would become clear that Tom is talking with someone, an 18-year-old (credited as Sniffer) who is telling him how to break into homes through open bathroom windows. This cut runs for 17 seconds until Rosie appears and stares at Tom -- she actually recognizes him as a boy she met in 1941, 50 years earlier, but first-time viewers won't know this. When Sniffer sees she is staring at Tom he says "Oi, Rossie! Piss off, alright?" A second cut starts just after Sniffer says "Rosie" and runs for 6 seconds (while Tom echoes the sentiment) stopping just before Sniffer says "People like that should be locked up." Sniffer's subsequent dialogue is cut from the soundtrack as Tom's mother approaches so FFFF viewers won't realize Sniffer is talking to Tom -- reformatting from widescreen to full frame also helps Sniffer to be cut out of the frame.

    User reviews25

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    A delightful and imaginative family film
    This is a very fine British family film. Because it is British rather than American, it is not stuffed full of artificial and mawkish sentimentality, but is more effective for being 'straight up'. The central role is played by an excellent child actor named Matthew Beard (born 1989), who since then has appeared in many films and TV series, most recently playing Guy Bellingfield in the rather notorious recent film THE RIOT CLUB (2014), which parodies the Bullingdon Club at Oxford. The young girl who plays opposite Beard is played by Charlotte Wakefield (born 1990), who is also excellent. Since then she has appeared in four TV series. Angeline Ball does an excellent job of playing the highly nervy and objectionable mother of Beard and does some really good hysterical scenes. (Let's hope she does not take her work home with her.) Sturdy Tom Wilkinson is there, like an English oak, supporting the whole effort with his unflappable demeanour as a farmer who is the adoptive father of the girl. Anna Massey plays 'Rosie' and gives a marvellous professional polish to the proceedings, as she did to everything. Of all the actresses I have known, she was certainly one of the nicest and most intelligent. She was married to a delightful, gentle scientist named Uri Andres (who once astounded me by handing me a chunk of kimberlite containing diamonds), having earlier somehow survived marriage to Jeremy Brett, which was evidently not easy. (She also had sadly unsatisfactory relationships with her father and her brother, the actors Raymond Massey and Daniel Massey, so you could say she had a rough time with the male gender for much of her life.) She was a truly fascinating woman. The well-known character actress Dora Bryan has a bit part in this film, and it is a shame we see so little of her. Willard Carroll has done a very good job of directing this film. The story is a 'slip through time' one, where the little boy of today goes back to the days of World War Two and then returns much wiser. It is quite an adventure, and children will love it. The film was shot entirely on location in South Yorkshire, with much beautiful scenery. The film is entirely wholesome, and the coarsest thing in it is milking a cow.
    helpful•4
    0
    • robert-temple-1
    • Oct 28, 2014

    Details

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    • Release date
      • December 23, 2002 (United Kingdom)
      • United Kingdom
      • English
    • Also known as
      • South Yorkshire, England, UK
    • Production companies
      • Barzo Productions
      • Children's Film and Television Foundation (CFTVF)
      • Gentian Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 35 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby

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