Snow Angels (2006/Warner DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C
When
David Gordon Green arrived on the scene with the ever-underrated George Washington, one could have
imagined a new voice with much to say had arrived. In interviews, Green said he was ready to
make all kinds of films and take on all genres.
However, for whatever reasons, he has made a series of films (up to Pineapple Express, which was something
different finally) that played more like a series of Hal Ashby and Martin Ritt films
than something new. Not that the films
were bad, as this review explains:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2716/Undertow+(MGM)
However, Snow Angels (2006) is one such film too
many, telling the tale of yet more subtle conflict in another dead end, simple
small town where serious events can have different effects on the residents
than anywhere else. At least those
effects unwind differently. This one is
about a young man (Michael Angarano) finding his way in life when other ugly
events outside of his personal self-discovery get in the way. Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell play a
couple who have a young daughter and are no longer together and the film tries
to tell this and other storylines interwoven.
Despite
the good acting, ambitious production, humor (the school band can’t play Peter
Gabriel’s hit Sledgehammer,
essentially implying this is a town that cannot “get it up”) and aspirations to
envoke Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last
Picture Show with less words. I kept
hoping this would develop into a good film, but it flatlines into
predictability and everything we have seen too soon and though it is not a
“snow job” just leaves one cold.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 was shot in Super 35mm by Green’s all-the-time
Director of Photography Tim Orr and they have the look down, but that look is
soft here and it is a shame the two have abandoned the J-D-C Scope that made George Washington look so good. There is a useless pan-and-scan 1.33 x 1 side
that is obsolete on arrival and should be skipped. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is subtle with a
limited soundfield, but dialogue that is clear for the most part. There are no extras, though an audio
commentary by Green and company would have been nice.
- Nicholas Sheffo
