Relationships are hard in David Gordon Green's fourth feature film Snow Angels. In a wintry small town, three couples are enlisted to prove the point: Louise (Jeannetta Arnette) and Don Parkinson (Griffin Dunne) are getting separated and their son Arthur (Michael Angarano) is falling into awkward teenage love with Lila (Olivia Thirlby), the new girl at school. The unhappiest of the three, Glenn (Sam Rockwell) and Annie (Kate Beckinsale), seem beyond redemption, living with divorce, restraining orders, suicide attempts, and a constant tug-of-war over their daughter Tara (Grace Hudson).
If the preceding paragraph made your eyes glaze over, I predict that the movie won't hold much interest for you either. Based on a novel by Steward O'Nan, Snow Angels confines itself to predictable plot points (guns! tragedy!) and scenes which lack distinctiveness that would lift them above middle-of-the-road domestic drama. Kate Beckinsale -- her movie-star beauty entirely out of place -- gets to wail and gnash her teeth when Tara goes missing, and Sam Rockwell makes a few impressive drunken-ex-in-the-driveway appearances, but my favorite scenes involve the high school lovers: whenever Olivia Thirlby and Michael Angarano are together on screen, Snow Angels briefly quickens into something more credible and vibrant.
Snow Angels opens March 7, 2008.
