Director: David Gordon Green
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, Griffin Dunne, Amy Sedaris, Michael Angarano, Olivia Thirlby, Jeanetta Arnette, Nicky Katt, Gracie Hudson

- Reviewed by Vickie

Much like his previous films, All the Real Girls and Undertow, Snow Angels continues writer-director David Gordon Green’s tradition of slow-moving, small-town character studies... only this time the story is punctuated by tragedy and violence. To say the film is a bit of a downer is a bit of an understatement.

Based on the novel by Stewart O’Nan and set in a nondescript, appropriately snowy town in what feels like February, the film trains its lens on a number of residents in flux. Waitress Annie (Kate Beckinsale) is a divorced single mom juggling work, her young daughter, the affair she’s having with her co-worker’s husband (Nicky Katt), and the increasingly manic demands of her ex-husband, Glenn (Sam Rockwell), a born-again Christian and not-so-recovered alcoholic prone to very erratic behavior. Teenager Arthur (Michael Angarano), meanwhile, works at the same restaurant as Annie, and is coping with his parents’ divorce while pursuing a sweet, budding romance with quirky classmate Lila (Juno’s Olivia Thirlby). The goings-on in their quiet little enclave very slowly become more tense, more charged and, ultimately, more explosive... until everything comes to a head for all the characters involved.

Although the story at the core of Snow Angels is fine (if depressing), what drives the film are the stellar performances from its cast. Beckinsale is excellent as a woman desperate to carve out a normal life amid chaos, and Rockwell is mesmerizing as a man teetering on the brink of emotional collapse as he simultaneously becomes a pressure cooker of pent-up frustration. Michael Angarano, who always turns in such lovely work, is once again wonderfully endearing as shy, goofy Arthur. And supporting players like Katt and Amy Sedaris—who trades her Strangers With Candy schtick for an equally entertaining but more nuanced turn here—only enrich the proceedings.

Where the film is somewhat lacking, though, is in its exploration of the periphery characters. Watching the movie, I got the distinct feeling that, in the book, people like Lila, Arthur’s parents (Griffin Dunne, Jeanetta Arnette), Sedaris’ Barb and Katt’s Nate, were explored in much greater detail. Even though they’re memorable, it feels a bit like they were cheated of more screen time. Adapting a novel for the screen always involves trimming some of the excess fat, so to speak, but this is one instance where an additional 20 minutes of movie might have been worth it to see a little more of these characters and what makes them tick. Similarly, while we quickly get a sense that Glenn is not well, it’s never really clear why he’s such a loose cannon or what’s happened in his life to push him so close to the edge.

Snow Angels is certainly somber viewing, and won’t be in the running for the feel-good movie of the spring, but it’s definitely worth a look for its dark, moody tale of love in all its incarnations.

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