Buy It Now: Snow Angels

Dir. David Gordon Green

Rating: 6.8  |  0 User Reviews  |  Send to Friend

By Piers Marchant

A warning to anyone planning nuptials before seeing this film: It won't necessarily make you run the other way, but at the very least, writer/director David Gordon Green's full-blown tragedy will put the fear of God in you not to screw it up. When we first see Glenn (Sam Rockwell), he's staring into the vanity mirror of his parents' bathroom, trying to get ready for a job "interview" he has at a carpet warehouse. His father hovers around him nervously, and with good reason: Glenn, a perpetual fuck-up, is a recovering alcoholic who attempted to kill himself when his now-estranged wife Annie (Kate Beckinsale) separated from him, taking their young daughter with her. Glenn is trying to get his life back together, but he's still shaken, uncertain, betraying himself over and over with a nervous trickle of a laugh. He tries too hard and not enough. Annie, meanwhile, despite holding a holier-than-thou opinion of Glenn, has her own issues, continuing an affair with her best friend's husband (Nicky Katt), and flirting with her former babysitting charge, Arthur (Michael Angarano), who also works with her at a miserable Chinese restaurant. Arthur, meanwhile, is having to endure his parents splitting up, while getting to know a new girl in his high school, Lila (Olivia Thirlby) who seems to gravitate instantly toward him. The film takes all these disparate strands and expertly mines their dramatic arcs -- in large part because of Green's excellent -- and honest -- dialogue. Midway through the film, with all the balls still juggling in the air, you get the sense Green could almost go anywhere with his set up, so tight and well-grounded are his characters. Unfortunately, as far as you think he can push the scenario, the film still manages to cross a few emotional boundaries that feel slightly out of reach. This comes certainly not for lack of trying, especially on the part of the wholly excellent cast, with Rockwell putting in another virtuoso performance as the shaky, pathetic Glenn. They bring these miserable, lived-in characters to shimmering life, difficult to watch at times as they struggle against each other, helpless to defend themselves against their own true nature.

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