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| ‘Snow Angels’ depicts a cold, bitter reality (B+) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| By Craig Outhier, Get Out | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| April 4, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Beckinsale’s career-defining performance resides in the geographical center of this expertly textured ensemble drama from writer-director David Gordon Green — a rising filmmaker who specializes in interpersonal sagas set in motion by tragedy, here trading the Southern gothic trappings of “George Washington” and “Undertow” for a snow-sheeted Midwestern community where everybody, literally and figuratively, is slipping. That’s especially true for Annie, who supports her preschool daughter by waiting tables at a low-rent Chinese diner and is newly separated from her husband, Glenn (Sam Rockwell from “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”), a sweet but troubled man who, we come to learn, tried to take his own life. Glenn wants to salvage the relationship, but Annie has moved on. Unbeknown to her husband, she’s having an affair with Nate (Nicky Katt), the macho, somewhat toolish husband of her friend and co-worker Barb (“Strangers With Candy” oddball Amy Sedaris, great in a rare dramatic role). In writer-director Green’s authentic, fair-minded script — adapted from the novel by Stewart O’Nan — Nate supplies an unlikely trickle of wisdom for Annie. “You’ve got to understand that people change,” he tells her when the revelation of their affair sends the born-again Glenn spinning into an alcohol-fueled crisis. If Annie is the flawed human pivot of “Snow Angels,” Glenn is the erratic, wide-swinging pendulum. Punishing himself with the bottle and with his own fists, sharing a boozy slow dance with an elderly drunk while a doleful Benji Hughes tune plays on the jukebox, he cuts a distinctly tragic figure, equal parts clown, angel and devil. Upon reflection, it’s hard to imagine anyone but Rockwell — one of the most versatile and underrated actors working today — playing him. As Glenn’s mental spectrum darkens and the story slides to its coldly inevitable finale, we’re obliged to ask ourselves what he was like before his life imploded. Maybe, something like Arthur (Michael Angarano from “Sky High”), Annie’s affable teenage co-worker and the kid she used to baby-sit back in the day? As Arthur’s own parents — played by Griffin Dunne and Jeanetta Arnette — grapple with marital dysfunction, he strikes up a touchingly pure romance with classmate Lila (Olivia Thirlby). Glenn used to be a smitten, smiling kid, too. And the director, with the gentle, almost imperceptible flow of his filmmaking, preserves them in a sort of yin-yang union of light and dark. Different, but the same. ‘Snow Angels’ Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Michael Angarano, Griffin Dunne Behind the scenes: Written and directed by David Gordon Green Rating: R (profanity, some violent content, brief sexuality and drug use) 106 min. Grade: B+ Contact Craig Outhier by email, or phone (480) 898-5683 |
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