"Snow Angels" (2008) - Movie Review

In a couple of street away running parallel to the house you live and a ditch flowing in common would live some one. They would have been the little sister or the big brother from the neighbourhood whom you looked upon or may be would have had a crush too as Arthur (Michael Angarano) had over Annie (Kate Beckinsale). Then time melts away and they grow up and you grow up along with them and regardless of their current state of affairs, they will not be the same and mostly would be a let down because the expectation at that age is stamped on our minds and it never is achieved. It is a tendency of staying things and being used to the things as we have seen in those trapped moments of remembrance of personality, things and emotions. We would have even heard the sad story of their demise or their character assassination by our mothers but the face remains the same and the pity that they have withered in the test of life haunts us in glimpses of shadowy evening. “Snow Angels” are about those people.

David Gordon Green directs this tale of a small town having the rolling dice of marriages in shambles and high school lovers in arms. It is a melancholy but does it make to care for its characters? Annie tries to put her past behind but caught up by it with the regular interruption of Glenn (Sam Rockwell). They have a little girl Tara (Gracie Hudson) and she is a little girl caught in those mix of visiting father and single mom. Glenn is an emotional extremist and after his first suicide attempt has found god. His zealot scares Annie and he aspires to be a good man so that he can get back with Annie and have his family back. At this is another couple breaking off and that would be Arthur’s dad Don (Griffin Dunne) leaving his wife Louise (Jeanetta Arnette). And Arthur hangs out with his new school mate Lila (Olivia Thirlby).

It is the town with dreaded cold and people wants to be inside with trouble asking them to come outside. It is a film of mood than characters. And that distances us in emotion and the action of the people in it. Annie sleeps with her best friend Barb’s (Amy Sedaris) husband Nate (Nicky Katt). The cold in the weather gets to our heart and we are pretty much numb through out the film. We stay still on the tragic happenings and the clockwork of the small town on these people. Watching the people in “Snow Angels” is staying lazy on a Sunday. They know they are not being productive and they got to do something but are too lazy to do it or their half hearted attempt ends in further misery. So is Glenn whose constant abundance of zealous love threatens Annie. He is the man truly lost and the last thing would be to show that to his separated wife. He needs hard evidence of his goodness which becomes his façade through his faith.

Films like “Snow Angels” put reviewers in tight spot. It has collected its accolade among critics and I can say to have seen a good film. It is a good film but not good enough. It is may be to the nature of the town and the people it carries around. There is a lack of real love among the saddest people. There is tint of hope in love on the nice people who have their time of collecting their droplets of making memories. The people in trouble are Annie and Glenn who we see together in a shred of happiness when Glenn asks Annie out. It can be seen why they were together and also why they are apart now. I can take a wild judgment of them being the high school sweet hearts getting married and now in their thirtish life change does not able to swallow the reality of it.

I hate to give a good review for a moderate film. And I hate to steal the goodness of a moderate film to discourage people from seeing it. I hate to be in this situation of indifference. Sometimes films like people are kind hearted and desperately tries to be helpful only to be all up our faces. “Snow Angels” is not up our faces but a little far away from our vision.