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Snow Angels
Warner Independent Pictures


7.5

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 8 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language, some violent content, brief sexuality and drug use

Starring Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Angarano, Griffin Dunne, Amy Sedaris, and Olivia Thirlby

A story of love lost and found in a small town, Snow Angels is a heartrending portrayal of three couples in various stages of life orbiting around each other in search of connection and meaning. An unexpected act of violence disrupts the lives of these intertwined couples and reveals the profound moments in which they each realize how precarious and remarkable life can be. High-school student Arthur plays trombone in the marching band, busses tables at the local Chinese restaurant, and avoids his squabbling parents. At work, he flirts with Annie, who used to be his babysitter. Annie is trying to build a new life for herself and her daughter after splitting with high-school sweetheart Glenn. A man with a troubled past, Glenn hopes to make a new start by getting a job and reconnecting with his family. At school, Arthur meets a pretty girl, Lila, who is just as nerdy as he is, and they quickly develop a crush on one another. Though Lila makes her feelings for Arthur painfully obvious, Arthur is reluctant to accept her advances as he watches his father move out of the family home while his mother struggles to keep things together. Determined to find happiness, Arthur begins to fall for the irresistible Lila, even as he witnesses Annie and Glenn tear one another apart in a series of distressing encounters that occur at the same time as his parents begin separate lives. Then, on a cold winter morning, Glenn and Annie's past catches up with their future. In one shocking moment, all of the pain and struggle comes to a screeching halt. For them, and for everyone who knows them, nothing will ever be the same. (Warner Independent Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	David Gordon Green
DIRECTED BY:	David Gordon Green
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 16, 2008 Theatrical: March 7, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	106 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

David Gordon Green's captivating winter-chill tragedy, is a tale that encompasses murder, divorce, adultery, alcohol abuse, mental breakdown, and the disappearance of a small child. In other words, it's downbeat enough to make the recent Oscar-nominated films look like party games.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Green is a rare bird in American filmmaking: a humanist who knows how to tell a story.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

The result feels less like selling out than growing up.

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

With a deep understanding of his characters, Green has crafted a film that's devastating and uplifting without sounding a false note.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

All of these actors are incredibly fine, and as a confirmed Beckinsale non-fan, I'm obliged to say that she really knocked me out here.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Disturbingly good. The writing and the performances are such that as things go from bad (sad motel-room affairs) to worse (a 4-year-old gone missing), the film's characters get inside your skin, your soul. It's enough to make you want to cry.

Variety Justin Chang

Emotionally harrowing and gentle by turns, this well-acted winter's tale is a more narrative-driven experience than Green's more lyrical Sundance entries, "George Washington" and "All the Real Girls."

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

Few filmmakers these days are as capable and assured with the fumbling ambivalence of human conversation as Green is; his ear for the half-truths, misapprehensions, and long-simmering defensiveness of everyday dialogue is a wonder to behold.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Revelatory as well as unsettling.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

For all the misery and emotional mess of Snow Angels, Green finds resilience and hope in the kids and even in some of the grown-ups.

Washington Post John Anderson

Despite the foibles that have affected his films, the dramatic image has always been important to Green, who has developed quite a cult following and deserves it.

Time Richard Corliss

The film's success is due in large part to actors who are both faithful to all the social minutiae and seductive enough to keep you watching.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

Snow Angels succeeds because of the depth of its well-drawn characters. With no cinematic sugarcoating, it's an organic story that draws us in to these people's lives, as flawed and destructive as they may be.

Village Voice Nathan Lee

What saves this heavy, heavy material from sinking into the chill, familiar turf of the Small-Town Midwinter Tragedy is Green's practiced ear for verbal idiosyncrasy and off-kilter conversation rhythms.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

A powerful drama, but if I didn’t know Green had directed it I probably wouldn’t have guessed.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

In spite of strong performances and a characteristically vivid sense of place, the film feels disjointed and heavy.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

It does give Sam Rockwell another opportunity to creep us out, and Kate Beckinsale a new shot at believability. Too bad the movie around them meanders.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason Anderson

Thoughtfully crafted but ultimately lugubrious, Green's latest only really connects when the director sticks to the small stuff.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Frankly, Snow Angels is a downer. This isn't inherently a negative - after all, some of the cinema's most powerful motion pictures are downbeat. However, in this case, there's no emotional force behind all the gloom - just a sense that something's missing.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Green knows how to convey a mood visually and develop tension with his camera. He just doesn't give people enough interesting things to say or know when to shut them up.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Despite all-around wonderful performances and excellent dialogue, the story never quite coheres narratively. Instead it moves toward a hopelessly bleak -- and I mean bleak -- climax that's more traumatic than dramatic.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

For a film full of murder, jealousy and fatalism, Snow Angels feels curiously small and anecdotal, and its impact diminishes as it nears its terrible conclusion.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Beckinsale tackles the downscale role manfully, but Rockwell is nearly unrecognizable as the pudgy, suicidally depressed, chronically inept Glenn, who's acting out a half-convincing portrayal of himself as a born-again Christian.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Kate Beckinsale is too good for any of the guys in Snow Angels and too good for this movie. Her inventiveness exposes just how puny this movie is.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

I left as frustrated as that band teacher is at the beginning of the movie. Enough with these meek, banal exercises, David Gordon Green. Hit me with the sledgehammer in your heart.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Scene by scene his (David Gordon Green’s) new film, Snow Angels, isn’t terrible. Parts of it are amusing, and there are wintry images that eat into the mind. But it’s one of the most disjunctive things I’ve ever sat through.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Green and his regular cinematographer Tim Orr have a feel for the sad, generic landscape of small-town America, but rather than adding to an overarching melancholy it only reinforces an already drab, at times bizarrely comic tone.

USA Today Claudia Puig

An intriguing and somber tale of disintegrating and disappointing relationships fused with a coming-of-age story.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tom M. gave it an8:
Occasionally one comes across a flick that throughout its viewing it is difficult to believe that you are actually watching a film, that is, the portrayals and details of the storyline are so real it stuns. Snow Angels is such a film. Every character and every cast member shine in this incredibly human story, essentially about two couples--one, somewhat seasoned but estranged and trapped by irredeemable despair; the other, coming of age and enheartened by the discovery and hope of first love. Kate Beckinsale, as the struggling lead character, and Michael Angarano, as the grappling teenager, are absolutely perfect, as is Sam Rockwood, playing the reborn and suicidal ex-husband. Incidentally, Rockwood's portrayal of a drunk stumbling violently through scene after scene is about as masterful a performance as you'll ever want to see. The man is truly gifted. The pacing of the film is a bit disorienting at first, with parallel and allied scenes threatening to overwhelm; but, gradually the effect cooks, adding to the starkness of it all.

Jay H. gave it a7:
Very believably done, exceptionally well written. The performances are excellent and convincing. Fine direction. Fine film, although it can be a bit of a downer.

Chad S. gave it a10:
Once when Arthur(Michael Angarano) was just a boy, he spied on his babysitter in the shower. Even though Lila(Olivia Thirlby) occupies the left side of Arthur's bed, she will never replace the babysitter in his heart. Back in the day, Annie(Kate Beckinsale) didn't walk, she floated up and down the sidewalks of her small New England town. Years later, it turns out that Annie was mortal, after all. Arthur works with his former babysitter at a Chinese restaurant. You've seen Annie's type before. She's the incongruous knockout ringing up your groceries at the checkout line in your supermarket, or she might be the "sandwich artist" asking you if "...you want the meal." These women have a story. A hard-luck story. It usually involves marrying the wrong guy, and having the wrong guy's child. That's Annie's story. That's why she's waiting on tables. In "Snow Angels", we see both: the fruition of young love, and the disintegration of a love gone to seed. With a little more time, Arthur's idealized ardor for Annie might've come full circle. It would've been a travesty, but by no means, a tragedy, given the context of what happens. "Snow Angels" is a sad movie, but sometimes sad movies say so much.

Michael E. gave it a6:
Well-made in all respects,with honesty and a startling turn from Sam Rockwell to recommend it, but it just screams "indie movie" and the story seems to made up entirely out of cliches from the "things that will get your movie into Sundance" checklist. Storywise there are no real surprises, and if the ending isn't obvious from the first act, it becomes jarringly so about halfway through.

Elizabeth C. gave it a5:
This film does feature some good naturalistic acting by Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell, a good sense of place and the director has promise. Yet I found that I couldn't get involved with the characters, and I was bored despite the melodramatic plot. The fault is with the writing, which is very disjointed as it jumps from character to character. I also found the rather generic teenage romance to be superfluous and distracting from the main plot.

Joe Z. gave it a10:
Sam Rockwell brings to the screen a very believable devastation of the heart. His acting is the best yet. It is not a happy story but the experience of true sadness has never been so well performed by this cast of characters.

Snow Angels Warner Independent Pictures

Snow Angels
Warner Independent Pictures