Snow Angels | Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell | Interconnected lives hurtling down multiple dead...

Snow Angels | Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell | Well worth seeing

DVDs:

Snow Angels

	Snow Angels Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell Warner Home Video, 2008 average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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A story of love lost and found in a small town, Snow Angels is a heartrending portrayal of three couples in various stages of life orbiting around each other in search of connection and meaning. An unexpected act of violence disrupts the lives of these intertwined couples revealing the profound moments in which they each realize how precarious and remarkable life can be.

Interconnected lives hurtling down multiple dead ends...

This is a well-done movie with an excellent cast. Set in a small town in the winter, the plot involves multiple tortured souls. Do not see it if you are in a down mood or need a refill on your anti-depressants.

I would be hard-pressed to call it "entertainment" but not everything that you see is going to amuse. A good movie!!

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Well worth seeing

This is one of those polarizing movies, as you can tell by the wide range of reviews. The best advice appearing in several of them: don't expect this movie to cheer you up.

It is uniformly well acted, cinematically beautiful, and a big downer. These people are trapped and, with few exceptions, hopeless. Much has been written about the very sweet teen-aged romance. It is a nice reminder that good things can happen in the midst of desolation. Otherwise, the bad things come at you relentlessly - it is one of those movies that may find you yelling at the characters on the screen. The casting is just about perfect. I would single out a few actors for special mention, but really everyone is very good.

This movie came to my attention because I'm reading Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan, the author whose book was adapted for this movie. Although both pieces deal with working-class America, the tone of LNATL is not nearly so depressing as SA. It's the difference between being able to cope and having given up. Anyway, Snow Angels is a haunting movie. It's not easy to watch, and I have a feeling it will be very hard to forget.

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well-made downer from the frozen north

if you dont appreciate movies like "ethan frome" or "the rapture",you dont want to go here.i grew up in barre,vermont, and this movie seems plenty realistic to me.it makes me grateful for escaping to atlanta and for so-far avoiding a horrible fate.

From Quiescence to Explosion

I read Stuart O'Nan's book Snow Angels: A Novel. While it was not as depressing as his second-person novel A Prayer for the Dying about the plague hitting a small town, I remember it as a very sad story. David Gordon Green whose film "George Washington" won Best First Film honor from the New York Film Critics Circle has adapted this to the screen. The juxtaposition of the small town normalcy of football and band practice to the personal conflicts and violence creates a tension that moves the film from quiescence to explosion.

Kate Beckinsale who was in Laurel Canyon and Underworld (Widescreen Special Edition) plays Annie, a young mother who is separated from her husband, having an affair with her best friend's husband and working in a Chinese restaurant. She flirts with Arthur who is in high school. While Beckinsale goes to the extremes of the emotional terrain demanded of her, it is her flawed character which alienates the viewer, leaving no good person for whom to root.

Sam Rockwell plays her unstable husband Glenn who loves his wife so much that he tried to commit suicide. Rockwell's character is quite different from the cool character in the quirky masterpiece "Lawn Dogs" and the villain in "Charlie's Angels." Rockwell won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor from the Berlin International Film Festival in 2003 for "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." Rockwell literally blows out the windows with a blockbuster performance of a man on an emotional precipice. Even at the end, it's hard to accurately tell if it's the event with his daughter or his grief over his marriage's breakup that sends him over the edge.

Arthur Parkinson is a high school student whose father has left his mother for a younger woman. Arthur is played by Michael Angarano who was in "Almost Famous" in 2000; and is one of the brightest spots in the film. The new girl in school is Lila who wears pointy glasses and takes photographs before her family moves yet again. Olivia Thirlby who was in Juno (Single-Disc Edition) does a good job as Lila who shyly sparks romance with Arthur. Jeanetta Arnette who was in the interesting film The Shipping News plays Arthur's mother who is glad her son has a social life. Griffin Dunne who has directed "Practical Magic" plays Arthur's dad Don Parkinson who leaves the family for another woman. Young Grace Hudson has a nice child cameo as Glenn & Annie's daughter Tara. Nicky Katt does a nice job as the tattooed Nate who has an affair with Annie.

One of the themes of the film was disturbing. Glenn spouts Christian rhetoric as proof of his rehabilitation before breaking one of the Ten Commandments. However, nowhere is a deep faith-based spirituality shown in any other character. Instead, it's all like shallow water similar to Tara's resting place. As the film spirals to its conclusion, there isn't any force trying to prevent the violence. Overall, as sad as "Snow Angels" was, the performances were affecting & the pacing on the film was excellent. Enjoy!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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