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Snow Angels | 
 enlarge | Director: David Gordon Green
Actors: Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Chase Duffy, Peter Blais, David Pezzaniti
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $27.98
Buy Used: $4.95
You Save: $23.03 (82%)
New (44) Used (37) from $4.95
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 11740
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 107
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: WARD027222D
UPC: 085391187325
EAN: 0085391187325
ASIN: B001DN0V02
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: September 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: DISC IS IN GOOD SHAPE. MAY HAVE MINOR SCRATCHES, WRITING ON THE DISC/CASE. FORMER RENTAL. ALL ART WORK. ORIGINAL CASE. WILL SHIP NEXT BUSINESS DAY. 100 % SATISFACTION GUARANTEED.
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Product Description
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.System Requirements:Running Time: 107 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/COMING OF AGE Rating: R UPC: 085391187325 Manufacturer No: 1000027222
Amazon.com
Since 2000's George Washington, his disarming debut, David Gordon Green has thrown in his lot with an assortment of down-on-their-luck characters. That empathetic tendency comes to fruition in Snow Angels, his most carefully-calibrated feature. Like a marginally more upbeat Ice Storm, solemnity never gives way to cynicism. The narrative revolves around a circle of small-town individuals (filmed in snow-covered Halifax, the action takes place somewhere on the East Coast). Restaurant worker Annie (Kate Beckinsale, in a career peak performance) is estranged from sporadically-employed high school sweetheart Glenn (Joshua's Sam Rockwell). The two have their own child, but in her younger days, Annie took care of co-worker Arthur (Lords of Dogtown's Michael Angarano), now a teenager himself. Arthur still carries a torch for his former babysitter, while artsy classmate Lila (Juno's Olivia Thirlby) finds him equally appealing. With the adult relationships around him crumbling--including that of his own parents (Jeanetta Arnette and Griffin Dunne)--Lila's flirtatious behavior leaves Arthur flummoxed. When Glenn finds out about his wife's affair with the married Nate (Grindhouse's Nicky Katt), pent-up tensions give way to full-blown tragedy. In adapting Stewart O'Nan's novel, Green sets his film in the present rather than 1970s Pennsylvania, but the story is universal enough to work in any time or place. In the film's press notes, Rockwell says: "I believe the film is about second chances. Some of the people in the film get them, some don't." Fortunately, Green doesn't short-change a single one. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
The Drama and Tragedy of Real People January 7, 2009
The film opens with a high school band practicing for halftime in a snow flurry. The band instructor is haranguing the students with a ridiculous speech, turning the halftime effort into an all-important metaphor for life. The students are bored and muffle snickers at his histrionics. Then in the distant snow, two gunshots ring out, followed by deep silence. Everyone stops, shocked at the possibility of gunfire. Then the scene fades and intertitles inform us we've been taken back to "several weeks earlier," to a period in which the relationships in the story are already broken. The relationship central in the story is between Annie Marchand (Kate Beckinsale) and her estranged husband Glenn (Sam Rockwell). Annie is frayed by the demands put upon her, while getting little in return. Her husband is even more pressing, with his wounded emotions, to the point she has to have a restraining order against him.
All of these people are good folks, and I felt deep sympathy for them. Beckinsale nailed it as a woman beleaguered in every direction. And Rockwell kept up his end of things, too, giving a deft performance of a man still sympathetic, despite the childish greed he mistakes for love. It's a working-folks drama that shows how, without a lot of options, even the little things add up to big things. A lot of people will immediately feel empathy for some of these people. I did, because it felt so real. Events flow as consequences, and characters cope with emotional wreckage and discontent while motivated only by the day's immediate obligations, constant and unrelenting. There's simply never enough time to take clear stock. If there's a moral here, it's buried so deep I never got to it. Perhaps it was in the budding love of teenagers, that there are no happy endings; only happy beginnings. It's a mature drama with fine actors playing real people, the sort of thing good actors want to do.
The cinematography didn't make itself obvious, and stood back as an objective witness. The landscape wasn't romanticized, and the sets were as practical and about as attractive as a driveway. It was a house people live in, a bar where people drank, as plain as that. The actors were doing all the work, with a very fine script. I recommend this for those times you want something to go a bit deeper than the stuff in the mainstream.
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 riveting performances January 2, 2009
I just watched this movie last night and it impacted me greatly .
As a new fan of Stewart O'Nan's fiction, I was intrigued when I saw the film version of his book, Snow Angels. Although I have not read the book yet , I certainly do intend to after having watched the film
I'lm really shocked at those who gave this movie 1 or 2 stars or the person who said it was one of the worse films he had ever seen - are we on the same planet ?
First of all, others have given a good synopsis of the movie so I will not dwell too much on that . There are essentially three couples' stories - that of Lila and Arthur , the teenagers in the throes of first love .
Next, is the vignette of Arthur's parents . His parents separate as is dad undergoes a midlife crisis , realizing finally that he misses his family and wants to return home .
But the main story focuses on Glenn and Annie . Annie has left Gleen and taken daughter Tara . Glenn cannot cope with the separation and had even attempted suicide . We learn that he is not the most stable person ,is a drinker , and cannot hold a job, yet Annie remembers when he made her laugh and made her see the best in everything .
As Annie continually rebuffs his attempts at reconciliation, Glenn goes deeper and deeper into despair .
A tragedy occurs and Glenn 's breakdown intensifies.
The performance of Kate Beckinsale is fantastic - her best work yet and puts her in a new class , but Rockwell's performance is absolutely riveting . The viewer feels his pain, his frustration; his sense of loss is palpable .It is a performance you will not quickly forget .
Granted, the movie is not light or fun and some will be depressed by the subject matter but this movie will have a profound effect on you .
 Well worth seeing December 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of those polarizing movies, as you can tell by the wide range of reviews. The best advice appearing in several of them: don't expect this movie to cheer you up.
It is uniformly well acted, cinematically beautiful, and a big downer. These people are trapped and, with few exceptions, hopeless. Much has been written about the very sweet teen-aged romance. It is a nice reminder that good things can happen in the midst of desolation. Otherwise, the bad things come at you relentlessly - it is one of those movies that may find you yelling at the characters on the screen. The casting is just about perfect. I would single out a few actors for special mention, but really everyone is very good.
This movie came to my attention because I'm reading Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan, the author whose book was adapted for this movie. Although both pieces deal with working-class America, the tone of LNATL is not nearly so depressing as SA. It's the difference between being able to cope and having given up. Anyway, Snow Angels is a haunting movie. It's not easy to watch, and I have a feeling it will be very hard to forget.
Interconnected lives hurtling down multiple dead ends... October 19, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a well-done movie with an excellent cast. Set in a small town in the winter, the plot involves multiple tortured souls. Do not see it if you are in a down mood or need a refill on your anti-depressants.
I would be hard-pressed to call it "entertainment" but not everything that you see is going to amuse. A good movie!!
From Quiescence to Explosion October 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read Stuart O'Nan's book Snow Angels: A Novel. While it was not as depressing as his second-person novel A Prayer for the Dying about the plague hitting a small town, I remember it as a very sad story. David Gordon Green whose film "George Washington" won Best First Film honor from the New York Film Critics Circle has adapted this to the screen. The juxtaposition of the small town normalcy of football and band practice to the personal conflicts and violence creates a tension that moves the film from quiescence to explosion.
Kate Beckinsale who was in Laurel Canyon and Underworld (Widescreen Special Edition) plays Annie, a young mother who is separated from her husband, having an affair with her best friend's husband and working in a Chinese restaurant. She flirts with Arthur who is in high school. While Beckinsale goes to the extremes of the emotional terrain demanded of her, it is her flawed character which alienates the viewer, leaving no good person for whom to root.
Sam Rockwell plays her unstable husband Glenn who loves his wife so much that he tried to commit suicide. Rockwell's character is quite different from the cool character in the quirky masterpiece "Lawn Dogs" and the villain in "Charlie's Angels." Rockwell won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor from the Berlin International Film Festival in 2003 for "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." Rockwell literally blows out the windows with a blockbuster performance of a man on an emotional precipice. Even at the end, it's hard to accurately tell if it's the event with his daughter or his grief over his marriage's breakup that sends him over the edge.
Arthur Parkinson is a high school student whose father has left his mother for a younger woman. Arthur is played by Michael Angarano who was in "Almost Famous" in 2000; and is one of the brightest spots in the film. The new girl in school is Lila who wears pointy glasses and takes photographs before her family moves yet again. Olivia Thirlby who was in Juno (Single-Disc Edition) does a good job as Lila who shyly sparks romance with Arthur. Jeanetta Arnette who was in the interesting film The Shipping News plays Arthur's mother who is glad her son has a social life. Griffin Dunne who has directed "Practical Magic" plays Arthur's dad Don Parkinson who leaves the family for another woman. Young Grace Hudson has a nice child cameo as Glenn & Annie's daughter Tara. Nicky Katt does a nice job as the tattooed Nate who has an affair with Annie.
One of the themes of the film was disturbing. Glenn spouts Christian rhetoric as proof of his rehabilitation before breaking one of the Ten Commandments. However, nowhere is a deep faith-based spirituality shown in any other character. Instead, it's all like shallow water similar to Tara's resting place. As the film spirals to its conclusion, there isn't any force trying to prevent the violence. Overall, as sad as "Snow Angels" was, the performances were affecting & the pacing on the film was excellent. Enjoy!
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