| | | Some Will Fall. Some Will Fly.
Features: DVD
Arthur busses tables in a Chinese restaurant, plays trombone in the high school marching band, and has his eye on smart, funny, offbeat Lila -- who definitely has her eye on him. But as Arthur takes tentative steps towards his first romantic relationship, the long time relationships of the adults around him teeter and crash, drawing Arthur into a vortex of events that will change his world forever.From director/screenwriter David Gordon Green (Undertow), based on Stewart O'Nan's powerful novel and empowered by the bone-real performances of Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell and as Arthur, young Michael Angarano (The Forbidden Kingdom), Snow Angels captures the power of first love. And second chances.
"Brave and magnificently performed." Jan Stuart, Newsday
"With a deep understanding of his characters, Green has crafted a film that's devastating and uplifting without sounding a false note." Jeremy Mathews, Film Threat
"Few filmmakers these days are as capable and assured with the fumbling ambivalence of human conversation as Green is..." Josh Rosenblatt, Austin Chronicle
"Green is a rare bird in American filmmaking: a humanist who knows how to tell a story." Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
"Grade A! Captivating!" Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"A great film!" Richard Roeper, At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper
"Revelatory as well as unsettling." Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
Editor's Note
Director David Gordon Green (GEORGE WASHINGTON) adds another carefully sculpted drama to his resume with SNOW ANGELS. Green deposits a strong cast in a snowbound Pennsylvania town for his fourth full-length feature, which revolves around the troubled teenage life of young Arthur (Michael Angarano). Arthur divides his time between working at a Chinese restaurant and dealing with the break up of his parents. His endearing lack of self-confidence is tempered when new-girl-in-town Lila (Olivia Thirlby) shows a romantic interest in him. Meanwhile, Arthur's co-worker and former babysitter, Annie (Kate Beckinsale), is trying to raise her child alone after the failure of her marriage to the unhinged Glenn (Sam Rockwell). Annie also embarks on an unwise affair with Nate (Nicky Katt), who happens to be married to her best friend. Green's central characters try to make the best of their modest lives until a major incident, dropped halfway through the movie, raises the tension between Annie and Glenn to breaking point. Beckinsale, Rockwell, and Angarano all deliver consummate performances, and they are joined by a strong supporting cast that includes Griffin Dunne and a rare straight role for comedian Amy Sedaris. Green's style, so often compared to that of Terrence Malick, takes a slightly different turn here as the director delivers a relatively straightforward thriller. But the change suits him, and SNOW ANGELS contains enough edge-of-your-seat tension to keep audiences curious as to where the director is going to take them.
| Features | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French | | Includes Both Widescreen & Full Screen Versions Of The Film! | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 9/8/2009 |
| Original Release Date: 2008 | | Catalog ID: 1000027222 | | UPC: 00085391187325 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen/Standard 2.40:1/1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Sundance Film Festival (2007) | | | David Gordon Green, Nominee, Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic |
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| | Professional Reviews | Box Office
"Once again turning his lens on the casualties at the edges of society, writer/director David Gordon Green uses his camera to manage emotion....The cumulative effect is meditative and devastating." 03/01/2008 p.53USA Today
"SNOW ANGELS is an intriguing and somber tale of disintegrating and disappointing relationships fused with a coming-of-age story....The performances are compelling..." 03/13/2008 Entertainment Weekly
"SNOW ANGELS has an open-eyed curiosity and dread, with each scene punctuated by fresh psychological undercurrents." -- Grade: A 03/14/2008 p.58 Premiere
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "SNOW ANGELS applies Green's impressionistic style to a complex narrative of small-town love and loss and horror..." 03/22/2008 Reel.com 9 of 10
After premiering at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, David Gordon Green's Snow Angels has languished in movie purgatory and not because it's a bad movie. It's a great movie, one that's almost brilliant, but it's a hard movie to market. The screenplay, based on the 1994 novel by Stewart O'Nan and written by Green, tackles some very heavy subjects including infidelity, divorce, the death of a child, and mental breakdowns. It's not a happy movie--by any stretch of the imagination--and there are no big stars in it, but for the mature and thoughtful moviegoer who's willing to take a chance, Snow Angels is a compelling movie that deserves an audience...O'Nan's novel is an exercise in human grief, and both the book and movie are more far more moving and tragic than your average character-driven novel or film. When reading the book, one feels an almost oppressive sense of melancholy, and Green is able to bring that same feeling to the film, which makes it a difficult one to watch. It's a tense and heartbreaking film about the failure of love (and alcohol/drugs and religion--opiates for those who hurt) and the specter of violence. And it's also one of those very rare films that's on par with the book it was based on. While not for everybody, Snow Angels is a spellbinding film for the discerning moviegoer. - Brie Beazley
ReelViews 7 of 10
Snow Angels tries to build an ensemble drama around a central tragedy. However, while individual aspects of the film work well on their own terms, the production as a whole lacks focus. Director David Gordon Green (All the Real Girls) gives us glimpses into the lives of the characters populating his canvas but there's a feeling that he's only scratching the surfaces of stories that have deeper undercurrents. And, 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...Green uses the gray of winter to intensify the gloom surrounding the characters. Many scenes are shot at night or when it's snowing...Atmosphere notwithstanding, it's impossible to shake the sense that the movie is incomplete. Even the strange final scene, which cuts off abruptly to usher in the end credits, adds to the feeling that something is missing. Films like Snow Angels, although technically proficient, can be frustrating when all the elements don't gel. Perhaps Green wanted to stay faithful to the source material (Stewart O'Nan's novel) by not thinning out the number of characters, but there's too much going on for any single movie to encompass. - James Berardinelli
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