There’s a sweetness in "Snow Angels," David Gordon Green’s devastatingly bleak portrait of crumbling relationships in a small town frozen in winter. Yet at almost every turn, that sweetness is overridden by the desperation of lives gone somehow wrong, derailed by bad choices that can’t be undone or overcome.
It’s an exceptional film, though so unrelentingly downbeat that it is at times difficult to watch. Yet a promise of hope in one relationship and an offbeat sense of humor -- as well as uniformly excellent performances -- prevent "Snow Angels" from being merely an exercise in sadness.
The film begins with a ragtag high-school band stumbling through a practice performance of Peter Gabriel’s "Sledgehammer." It’s a funny scene, one that would be at home in a coming-of-age teen comedy.
Then we hear two gunshots.
From there we go back a few weeks to see what led to the shots and to learn who they involve. Eventually, it will seem both obvious and inevitable, but Green has such a sure hand with small-town life and its bitter dramas that by the time he pushes his characters into the abyss, our investment in them is so complete that the inevitability won’t matter.
A tragedy brings the characters together and leads some on a downward spiral that ends in the gunshots we hear at the beginning.
There’s so much life and charm and magic in this story line that a few scenes add up to one of the most authentic and sweet teen romances the screen has seen in years.
Green’s adaptation of Stewart O’Nan’s novel talks obliquely of the present as a gift, the Almighty as a carrier of grace, and the predestined significance of every person on the playing field of life. The film has the cool despair and low-light snowscapes of other wintry dramas -- "Nobody’s Fool" or "Away from Her" -- and it boasts some sharp ensemble work by a fine cast.
The film carries the stealth impact of a great short story. Green and company know where they’re going in every scene, and every scene exists at a vivid intersection between the neatness of fiction and the emotional stuff of life.
Yes, it’s painful, but "Snow Angels" is so full of rich performances and characterizations that even gunshots can’t kill its power.
Sublimely moving, “Snow Angels” is rich, troubling and, for all its bleakness, emotionally satisfying. It’s not easy to watch the worst of what happens here. But you never sense Green and his ensemble of actors pushing for effect, even when they’re striving for a daring mixture of drama and mordant humor, hopelessness and hope.
It is rated R and has a running time of 106 minutes.
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''Snow Angels'' premieres at Smith Op...
Date and Time
Friday Nov 14, 2008 Tuesday Nov 18, 2008
November 14th, 17th & 18th at 7pm
Sunday, November 16th at 2pm
Location
Smith Opera House82 Seneca St.Geneva, NY
Fees/Admission
$5 general admission$3 students & senior citizens
Website
Contact Information
315-781-LIVE(5483) or toll-free 1-866-355-LIVE (5483)
