Angels & Insects
This 1995 film is on the subject of evolution. Or is it? That interpretation may be left to the viewer.
The film is about a biologist named William Adamson (Mark Rylance) living in the 1860's. Adamson has just returned from a scientific expedition to the Amazon, but unfortunately he was shipwrecked and lost most of his notes and specimens. He becomes a house guest of Edgar Alabaster, an English nobleman with an interest in naturalism. Adamson falls in love with Alabaster's daughter, Eugenia (Patsy Kensit), and he marries her, but he also begins to work closely with estate governess, Mattie Crompton (Kristin Scott Thomas). Mattie is also interested in naturalism, and she "thinks a great deal for a woman."
There are many examples in the film of parallels between human behavior and the social behavior of ants. Adamson and Mattie work together on a book to document ant behavior. Adamson, of course, is a evolutionist. The patriarch Alabaster converts from initial creationism to favor Darwinism. However, he struggles with the idea of his mortality, uncomfortable about "moldering like a mushroom" to "dust and destruction."
Just when humans begin to look as simple and predictable as insects, the characters show that they are capable of actions that are very contrary to evolution, both for good and for ill. The ending seems to indicate that humans can do greater things than insects, which is a humanistic idea. (Or, maybe that isn't what it means.)
The movie is available on video. It is rated R for male and female nudity, and if children watch it, the adults may have some uncomfortable explaining to do.