Review: Snow Angels

David Gordon Green’s Snow Angels is a rare type of film. Most modern works try to draw audiences in with flashy camera gimmicks, plot twists or fancy-pants screenplay hyperbole. Snow Angels is different.

The film is so self-assured that it doesn’t need those tricks. Instead, it hits us with strong characters with real motivations, whom we love and even, at times, fear. You will get lost in the film, and when it ends you will want to sit in the quiet theater and think about what you’ve just seen.

Snow Angels is based on a 1994 novel of the same name written by Stewart O’Nan. The story revolves around the interconnections between a few characters in small-town America and a tragedy that affects them all. Michael Angarano plays Arthur Parkinson, a high schooler at that stage in life when nothing seems to make sense. He works at a Chinese food restaurant where Annie (Kate Beckinsale) waits on tables during the day and visits a hotel room late at night with her best friend’s husband. And in the film’s showcase role, Sam Rockwell plays Glenn, Annie’s estranged husband who is a born-again Christian and recovering alcoholic teetering on the edge of madness.

The glory of the film relies on the way it hypnotizes the audience with its heart-wrenching story and lush camera shots of magnificent snow-covered landscapes. It builds and builds upon itself–eventually reaching a riveting emotional crescendo.

If anything, Snow Angels works too well. As the story rises to its inevitable conclusion, the dread is almost unbearable. You almost wish it would divert from its tragic arc.

The moments of sweetness and levity help this movie from being completely sad, even when humor would seemingly be out-of-place. Snow Angels> is a relief from the usual garbage the studios dump on audiences in the spring. And although the year is still young, Snow Angels is sure to be one of the best films of the year.