To Bathe in Filmic Waters

Snow Angels | David Gordon Green, 2008

David Gordon Green’s overlooked and under-celebrated fourth full-length feature Snow Angels is a film about adults lost – lost in love upon a landscape buried under never-ceasing snowfall. It is a tale as bleak as this pure white landscape; purity that violently contradicts the lives of our two central characters Annie and Glenn. Divorcees with a child in tow, their relationship has run aground upon rocky terrain and is now strewn, smouldering on the ground. It is a path also taken by the parents of a young student called Arther, who Annie works with and used to babysit for once upon a time. His folks live in separate houses, and are a needless distraction from the already perilous life as a high school student in this sleepy winter town. With the solidity of adult relationships crumbling around him, Arthur strikes up an awkward romantic companionship with oddball Lila yet is scared that his new-found love may follow that of his parents. Glenn, played by the buccaneering form of an impressive Sam Rockwell can’t find it in him to leave Annie (Kate Beckinsale) alone when she has made her position crystal clear. His desperate attempts at reconciliation provide the fireworks for what is rather a slow-burning effort from Gordon Green. Scarred by years of alcohol abuse, Glenn then turns to the solace of religion and solidity of a factory job to win Annie back – a mixture that only contributes to the film’s explosive and tragic final sequence.

Adults lost in love is the central theme here, and through Annie, Glenn, their friends and Arthur’s parents we are never allowed to forget this. Amongst the rubble of these broken relationships a new one blossoms, yet this gives way only to sadness when we realise its slim chances on this barren, lovelorn landscape. Snow Angels doesn’t dwell upon the high school romance between Arthur and Lila yet uses it to good effect; there is hope in their awkwardness, reassurance to be found in their innocence. We can only hope that through their knowledge of the tragic end to Annie and Glenn’s marriage they can plot a better course for their future. Indeed, it appears that with Snow Angels David Gordon Green wishes to warn us away from the ignorance shown by Annie; who begins a motel room affair with her best friend’s husband, and Glenn; whose mental collapse is profound if not a little overblown. An idea that can be backed up through the subtle flirting between Arthur and Annie during their dreary days of work at a local Chinese restaurant. Annie quite literally represents the early signs of romantic or even sexual awakening in Arthur’s life, but he is now grown up and slightly wary of her curious affection. The director uses Arthur in this way to act as an observer of sorts, one who is mature enough to steer clear of the detrimental love lives around him and concentrate on something much more special.

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