Cold, heartfelt, emotionally devastating and oddly hopeful, David Gordon Green’s (Undertow) Snow Angels, based on the novel by Stewart O’Nan, is a sometimes breathtaking experience full of ethereal imagery that stuck with me long after it was over. While I admit to wanting more, maybe even yearned for the tale to pull itself in a different direction then the one it ultimately takes, the film had me so swept up inside its frigid overcoat none of that mattered. Without question, this is director’s best feature since his instantly classic 2000 debut George Washington, and while it won’t please everyone those willing to lose themselves inside its icy embrace or truly in for a melancholic treat.

Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale in Warner Independent's Snow Angels

Three relationships are on display, all of them observed to varying degrees of isolated angst by high school marching band trombone player Arthur (Michael Angarano, Almost Famous). Not only is his slowly evolving friendship with curiously sexy and idiosyncratic new student Lila (Olivia Thirlby, Juno) maybe developing into something more, his once close-knit parents are timorously flirting with an uncomfortable divorce.

But it is the fates of his former babysitter (and current coworker at the local eatery) Annie (Kate Beckinsale, Vacancy) and her ex-husband Glen (Sam Rockwell, Joshua) that has Arthur most perplexed. Their love-hate relationship, especially as it relates to the couple’s five-year-old daughter, troubles him and he can’t quite figure out why. All he knows is that something about it all seems off, both of them traveling in directions that if they don’t put on the brakes soon could very well spell disaster.

There are a lot of second chances offered to all of the characters here. Some of them are obvious, many not so much, and like all second chances very few of them are used as they should be. Yet there is the hope, the constant, omnipresent, invigorating hope that they will be, and as things slowly start to unravel the pain I felt grew in exact proportion to the dawning horror all of this might just end in tragedy.

It is, in short, pretty darn powerful stuff, the melodrama of real lives doing everything they can to rest control of their fates out of the hands of chaos and into their own porously sweating palms. What is right? What is wrong? When is faith a bad omen? When is it the only road to salvation? Most of all, when do we know relationships end, and what responsibility do we still carry to honor them after they’ve reached the point of no salvation?

The film can’t possibly answer all of these questions, especially given the fact it parallels all of this broodingly destructive pathos with the frothy effervescence of a young love just starting to bubble to life. There is hope in devastation, new chances for life in the passing throws of tragic death, and Green has all this and more on his mind as his story starts drawing to its close. It’s all maybe a bit too much, and while I’m not sure the final images are as hopeful and as inspiring as I’m sure he meant them to be what is left is still so movingly poignant powerful I couldn’t help but cry.

While all of the actors do exemplary work (especially Strangers with Candy vet Amy Sedaris, a true surprise if there ever was one), it is Rockwell and Beckinsale who shine the brightest here. The latter has always been a fine actress (just see Cold Comfort Farm or Laurel Canyon for proof), it’s just been lost amidst of kick-ass martial arts and hyperkinetic gunplay in both those Underworld adventures. Green rediscovers it, the actress digging so deeply into Annie’s psyche she literally stole my heart.

As for Rockewell, the man has been an underrated treasure for what seems like forever, and if anyone should have the chance to be a leading man it sure as heck should be him. Glen is not an easy guy to like, his Born Again extremism mixed with some loathing self hate for allowing the destruction of his marriage making him as prickly a person as we’ve seen on-screen all year. Yet Rockwell gives him a humanity that is distinctly touching and true. We want him to succeed, urge him to find the strength to persevere through the coming storms of darkness and despair, all of it making his final potentially catastrophic decisions all the more painful. This is, without a doubt, the first stunningly great performance of 2008, and it’s a pit the film is far too small (and released much too early in the year) for Oscar to ultimately take notice. 

While Snow Angels doesn’t reach the elegiac heights of Green’s magnificent debut, what he ultimately does attain is so tender and affecting its merits are clearly apparent all on their lonesome. This is a movie I couldn’t stop watching, couldn’t have pulled my eyes away from even if I had wanted to try. In many ways it is a minor revelation, and by the time it was over even though the subject matter had nearly sucked the life right out of me I almost couldn’t wait to walk back into the theater and see it again.

Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)

Additional Links:

-  Interview with Writer and Director David Gordon Green by Sara Michelle Fetters
-  Snow Angels Theatrical Trailer