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Tuesday
16Sep2008

New to DVD - 'Snow Angels'

DateTuesday, September 16, 2008 at 6:28PM
Snow Angels

Starring Kate Becknisale, Sam Rockwell, and Michael Angarano
Directed by David Gordon Green
Rated R


snowangelsdvd.jpg I was really impressed by Kate Beckinsale in Snow Angels, a slow, deliberate movie that moves inexorably towards the ending it predicts at the very beginning, despite any objections we may have to it.

Beckinsale plays Annie, a waitress in a Chinese restaurant. She's the mother of an adventurous little girl named Lila, and she's going through a very weird separation from her husband, Glenn (Sam Rockwell).

After she left Glenn, he drove off a bridge - on purpose - but came away unharmed. Needless to say, he's got some work ahead of him.

At the restaurant, Annie prods her teenage co-worker, Arthur (Michael Angarano from Forbidden Kingdom). Years earlier, Annie had been Arthur's babysitter, and he developed a massive crush. Snow Angels shows a series of relationships flying apart - Annie and Glenn, Annie and her new boyfriend, Glenn and reality, Arthur's parents - but it also shows one full of hope and possibilities. Arthur has captured the bespectacled eye of Lila (Olivia Thirlby), and together, they're comfortable in their weirdness. He plays tuba and trombone, she takes pictures.

In a strange way, Snow Angels (based on a book of the same name by Stewart O'Nan) is about reverberations, after shocks. It's about what you do to either overcome those things life throws at you or the things you do to let life overwhelm you. Director David Gordon Green (Undertow, Pineapple Express) shot the film in Nova Scotia in what appears to be the dead of winter. It's a fairly bleak tableau, which suits the tone of the film well: We see these connections dying out but spring is just around the corner with Arthur and Lila.

We have come to expect the unexpected from Sam Rockwell, who has aced performances in everything from Galaxy Quest to The Green Mile and from Confessions of a Dangerous Mind to The Assassination of Jesse James. What we haven't expected is such a mature, focused portrayal from Beckinsale. The truth is, she's  very talented and showed signs of this kind of performance much earlier in her career. But the perception is that she's gorgeous and does a lot of action movies. But while it's sometimes hard to accept movie stars when they dirty up for a role, that's not the reaction here with Beckinsale, who is clearly the film's center, and she doesn't disappoint.

The ending of Snow Angels may leave you cold, pardon the pun, but that's not really for us to decide. As I mentioned, it's the ending to this story. It fits. Another conclusion wouldn't. So enjoy the journey, if not the destination.

Snow Angels
Own it on DVD Tuesday, September 16th from Warner Home Video
Check out the official Snow Angels website
Purchase Snow Angels now
Get the inside scoop on WB movie and DVD releases! www.wbreelnews.com

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment1 Comment |

Reader Comments (1)

Misspelled "cold" in last paragraph; it could make a difference to correct it :)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterMM

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