'Snow Angels' will leave you cold

By Steve Persall, Times Film Critic
In print: Thursday, May 1, 2008

Story Tools E-mail this story Contact the editor Print this story Comment on this story Social Bookmarking [+] Digg Facebook Stumbleupon Reddit Del.icio.us Newsvine

ADVERTISEMENT [Crossroads Films] Sam Rockwell plays Glenn, the over-the-edge ex-husband of Annie (Kate Beckinsale), in the movie.

Snow Angels (R) (106 min.) — Movies don't come much grimmer than David Gordon Green's latest, structured as a minor mystery and stocked with major soap opera problems.

Snow Angels spends too much time going for wistfully quirked, blunting the dramatic elements. For example, the opening shots are of a clumsy high school marching band murdering Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer when gunshots echo from nearby woods. Viewers are required to slog through closed-door dynamics to find out who fired, and who fell.

At the center are Arthur (Michael Angarano) and Lila (Olivia Thirlby), classmates falling in first love. Arthur crushes on a waitress named Annie (miscast Kate Beckinsale), whose alcoholic, born-again ex-husband Glenn (Sam Rockwell) is flying over the edge. Annie is comforting herself with a married man (Nicky Katt). Arthur's parents may be headed in the same direction.

Yet Arthur and Lila seem immune to such dysfunction, shyly sharing their hopes and growing affection for each other. Green repeatedly interrupts such guileless innocence with emotional explosions and a child's disappearance. At least three movies are happening in Snow Angels, leaving none with the attention they deserve.

The performances are strong, especially that of Rockwell, whose portrayal of Glenn is fraught with doom and, of course, gloom. Maybe Green is going for the message that growing up ruins the best of us, which may be true. But he needn't ruin a promising movie proving it. C

Steve Persall, Times film critic