SOURCE: "An Angel at My Table: Jane Campion Throws a Curve," in American Film, Vol. XVI, No. 7, July, 1991, pp. 52-3.

In the following review, Drucker finds An Angel at My Table "as subtle and straightforward as Sweetie was startling and stylized."

Director Jane Campion woke up the film world in 1989 with the bizarre, darkly comic vision of Sweetie. A tale about the rivalry between two sisters—one neurotic, the other psychotic—Campion's feature debut boasted eerie dream sequences, flamboyant characters and altogether odd behavior.

Just when critics thought they had Campion pegged (many referred to her as a female David Lynch), the 37-year-old filmmaker threw a curve. Campion's follow-up film, An Angel at My Table, is as subtle and straightforward as Sweetie was startling and stylized. The story of celebrated New Zealand author Janet Frame (played in turn by Alexia Keogh as the young Janet, Karen Fergusson as...