David Gordon Green's first two pictures, George Washington and All the Real Girls, were so good it was only a matter of time before the magic would begin to wear off. Those movies were uncommonly realistic slice-of-life portraits, the reason for their success due to the painfully authentic characters and the way Green (and cinematographer Tim Orr) captured the way a small town atmosphere can effect the people who reside there. His third movie, Undertow, still maintained the visual beauty but lost the rest due to a plot that was too heavy handed for its own good. You can sense Green really trying to get back to where he was in the beginning with his fourth effort, Snow Angels, but while his other movies dealt mostly with adolescents, this one also focuses on adult relationships. The idea I found most appealing here involves how the teenage characters respond to the dysfunctional interaction between the adults. This is mostly observed through the eyes of Arthur (Michael Angarano, excellent), a young man awkwardly experiencing love for the first time in his life. We see skepticism in his actions when Lila (Olivia Thirlby, also excellent) first comes on to him, which makes sense given that his parents have just separated and then shortly after, Arthur sees his father (Griffin Dunne) with another woman. Naturally, he is angry and confused. But that doesn't stop him from trying to find a connection with Lila in hopes he won't mimic his father's behavior. There's an incredibly sweet scene where Lila sleeps over and Arthur brings her breakfast in bed.
Arthur and Lila's scenes are the highlight of Snow Angels, without question. Each moment between them has a tenderness that's missing from most movies about young love. If there's a problem here, it's that we know from Green's earlier pictures that he is capable of pulling off this material well. It's when he gets into the territory of the adults that he really falters. Look, for instance, at the scene where Arthur's father tells his wife (Jeanetta Arnette) he's leaving her. The actors give it all they've got, but the dialogue sounds like the stuff you'd expect to hear on a soap opera. Same goes for Arthur's conversations with his father after the separation. Instead of really trying to show the emotional wounds these two have, we're forced to settle for the same old harsh realizations. At least he fares better with his mother, who is genuinly enthused when she finds out her son had overnight female company (she's equally proud and jealous that her son "got some").
If the troubles between his parents weren't enough, Arthur also has to deal with a marital battle between his former babysitter, Annie (Kate Beckinsale), and her nutjob of a husband, Glenn (Sam Rockwell). She is trying to make it as a single mom by waitressing, while he gets drunk a lot, makes threats, and prays to God. Glenn is aggressively trying to win Annie back, but she won't have it. Besides, she's too busy screwing her friend Barb's (Amy Sedaris, solid) husband (a cartoonish Nicky Katt), not realizing of course that she's destroying someone else's marriage. Thanks (or no thanks, really) to Glenn, most every scene between he and Annie is a piece of overcooked melodrama, whether it involves Glenn trying to give Annie pictures of their daughter or him taking her to dinner. If the dialogue has a stale ring to it, the phony tension is elevated a few levels too high due to Rockwell's rickety performance.
I'm not sure what Sam Rockwell was going for here. I know he can play unstable well (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind being the greatest example), so it's rather disheartening to see a such a genuine talent try so hard to earn sympathy and fail. On the flipside, Kate Beckinsale is terrific as Annie. Since she basically upstages Rockwell in every scene they share, it only makes the flaws of his performance stand out even more. It's strangely fascinating to watch them onscreen together since they are never able to strike a comfortable balance. What I mean is, it's crucial for the audience to believe these two people have a real past together, and yet I never got that impression. I honestly felt like their relationship did not exist until their introduction in this movie, an issue that could only have been resolved had a different actor been cast as Glenn.
Annie and Glenn are sadly supposed to act as the movie's anchor. Because of this, I had a difficult time being optimistic about whether or not it was going to get any better. The picture's not boring; there's just very little human interest when you take out the teenage love story. Annie and Glenn's problems build first to a tragic climax, which is meant to pave the way to the shocking conclusion. Both stages are handled as if they're afterthoughts, particularly when referring to the final scenes. Snow Angels strains too hard to earn the ending it chooses; sure, we can see it pushing in that direction, but there's hardly any reason to care once it finally arrives at the intended destination. The events function as plot devices, conveniently plugged in just so the movie can jump at the chance to pull the audience's strings before the lights go up.
Green and Orr have made a visually stunning movie that works overtime to cover the weaknesses in the script. The snowy landscape is shot as a place of constant mystery and fear, and while there are moments where the audience can almost feel the chill, it only resonates to the fullest extent during a scene where Arthur makes a discovery at a frozen pond. Despite the movie's visual appeal, Green often distracts from it with a number of puzzling shots where the camera simply wanders off into nothingness. More than anything, it feels like a cheap attempt to do something artistic. These moments truly frightened me, because they made me worried that the once promising Green is running out of profound and insightful things to say (his next movie, Pineapple Express, did not improve matters). The fact he's been chosen to direct the remake of Suspiria holds a bit of anticipation that maybe, just maybe, he'll be able to find his way again.
Thank you for visiting Hell and Beyond!
Copyright, Hell and Beyond, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment