STUDIO: Warner Brothers
RELEASE DATE: September 16, 2008
STARRING: Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Angarano, Olivia Thirlby, Amy Sedaris, Griffin Dunne, Jeanetta Arnett, and Nicky Katt
WRITTEN BY: David Gordon Green
DIRECTED BY: David Gordon Green
FEATURES: None

David Gordon Green’s haunting film, Snow Angels, tells the story of three romantic relationships in a small town, each at different stages: one just starting, one on the rocks and, most heartbreakingly, one that’s already over before the film begins. The central character through whom these three relationships are connected is Arthur (Michael Angarano), an awkward teenager who’s starting his first real relationship with the new girl at his high school, Lila (Olivia Thirlby). Arthur’s parents meanwhile (Griffin Dunne and Jeanetta Arnett) are living apart following an infidelity on his father’s part. Lastly, Arthur’s childhood babysitter, Annie (Kate Beckinsale) and her estranged husband Glenn (Sam Rockwell) are sorting out what, if any, platonic relationship they will have following the dissolution of their relationship.

Green has a great ear for dialogue and initially it seems that Snow Angels will be a satire of Midwestern small town life much like Alexander Payne’s Election or Ted Demme’s Beautiful Girls. The film begins comically with a way-to-serious speech on the part of the high school band teacher about the importance of the high school band playing Peter Gabriel’s "SledgeHammer" flawlessly at an upcoming football game: "Do you have a sledgehammer in your heart!? Because I have a sledgehammer in my heart. I found it when I was your age. And I lived in that future. Are you ready to live in that future? Are you ready to be my sledgehammer!?" This comic tone is also evidenced in dialogue like the pitch-perfect exchange between the awkward Arthur and (the much less awkward) Lila (Lila: "I like your shoes." Arthur: "What’s wrong with them.") and Glenn’s weekend custody time with his 5 year old daughter, punctuated with uncomfortably long pre-meal prayer sessions in shopping mall food courts and comments to his daughter like "Tell mommy that daddy doesn’t drink beer anymore."

Green certainly excels at this type of writing but the film slowly reveals that its going to be about something darker than awkward hipster teens falling in love or a dopey dad trying too hard to demonstrate that he’s a changed man to win his family back. As Snow Angels progresses, it is clear that it is much more similar to the darker themed Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter and Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm than the comical Election and Beautiful Girls. Indeed, one of the film’s strengths is that it slowly parcels out information which changes the viewer’s perspective on earlier seen events, recasting them from a comical context to a much sadder one. For example, Sam Rockwell’s trying-too-hard dad becomes much less comical the more you learn about the circumstances of his relationship ending with Annie and the same hanging-out at the mall scenes described above with his daughter which initially played funny are shown to instead be indicative of something quite serious and sad.

One of the pleasures of Green’s writing is that his characters exist, fully realized and living their lives, before the film begins and the viewer must slowly pick up on their traits, relationships to one another and past events from what they reveal piecemeal through their conversations with one another, just as one learns of people in real life. These characters are also, of course, the result of superb acting on the part of the case. Working off an excellent script, the actors are able to make fresh and compelling otherwise cliched situations like teenage first love, middle-class marriage on the rocks, and a man’s attempt to overcome his demons and win back his family. Angarano and Thirlby invest their characters with just the right mix of adolescent doubt and idealism and make their teenage relationship seem convincing. Dunne and Arnett’s relationship is the least developed of the three but, in their small roles, the actors effectively portray two people who have been married for a very long time, taking a breath and deciding if it makes sense for them to continue doing so or not.

The film really belongs, however, to Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale whose characters have already taken that breath and one of whom, Annie, has decided not to continue. With his portrayal of a likable but deeply flawed man who wants his family back but lacks the knowledge of how do so and the courage to accept the possibility of them not returning, Sam Rockwell (as he also did in last year’s Assassination of Jesse James) demonstrates that he’s one of the more versatile actors working today. And, Kate Beckinsale, with Annie - a person who seems to still love the Glenn she remembers from before while trying to escape the Glenn she knows now - reminds the viewer of her versatility as an actor (which her more recent work in the Underworld films, Van Helsing and Click hasn’t required her to draw upon). Nicky Katt and Amy Sedaris also shine in small supporting roles as a husband and wife who become entangled in Glenn and Annie’s troubles.

One of the things which bothered me slightly about Green’s previous films was their tendency to meander a bit which I felt detracted from their emotional power. Snow Angels packs a similar emotional punch as All the Real Girls and Undertow but takes less detours in getting there, something the film is the better for.