Snow Angels (2008)

David Gordon Green's two 2008 releases -- Snow Angels and Pineapple Express -- couldn't be more different, sharing only a scene where two characters smoke pot. Neither film fully succeeds, but Snow Angels comes up a lot shorter. The film is an exercise in intentional de-glamorization. In Green's effort to promote realism, everything in this small wintry town is excessively scruffy. It's literally a warts-and-all approach -- most characters have a facial blemish, and only the unavoidably elegant Kate Beckinsale stands out from a sea of overgrown beards, crooked glasses and bad haircuts. (She's also the one actor who doesn't ring true). Snow Angels starts out like an honest portrayal of the hardships and relationship failings of blue-collar life, but quickly morphs into an unremitting tragedy. Every glimmer of hope is dashed shortly after it flickers into existence, as viewers are left trying to puzzle together the lessons of Green's film. His particular brand of masochism was also on display in the 2003 downer All the Real Girls, where his problem was the same: he's too committed to the idea that events don't always have meaning or a silver lining. But that's what determines whether a story is even worth telling in the first place, and helps us locate the sympathetic characters. Beckinsale's Annie is the most difficult in this last sense. She's supposed to occupy the righteous position of being harassed by her estranged husband (an agonized Sam Rockwell), but she treats people so poorly (most egregiously her young daughter) that she doesn't deserve an ounce of compassion. Green does try to leaven the proceedings with a love story between two gawky teenagers (Michael Angarano and Olivia Thirlby), but it's not a clear thematic complement to the main story, and is lacking what the rest of the film has in spades: conflict. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide