Review of Snow Angels (2007) by Shayla M — 13 Jan 2010

This movie was devastating and beautiful at the same time. I thought the acting was phenomenal from everyone, and I definitely shed a few tears at different moments for different reasons. Such a shame this film was opened in limited release. I found this film to be very raw and realistic, I thought the characters were all extremely believable. I saw someone I knew in every one of them, and there were times when what I saw on the screen seemed to mirror my own life at times. Especially the scene in the bar, where Glenn Marchand ( Sam Rockwell ) was on the dance floor with the two lonely drunks. That scene was powerful, at least for me it was. I've been in small town bars like that, I've seen people lost in their own sad little worlds at the end of the night like that... it made me want to cry.

The relationships in this movie seemed so realistic, people are complicated creatures and we all do things and feel things at one point or another that don't make sense. Sam Rockwell's character by all rights, I should have hated. In all honesty I just found myself feeling sorry for him. I looked at him as someone lost and pathetic and psychologically messed up. I watched him struggle with his obsessive unhealthy love for Annie, and it was obvious that he wasn't quite connected to his daughter way before what he did to her happened. When I saw him first come to get her and he's telling her to tell mommy he doesn't like beer anymore... it made me sick to my stomach. All too often, adults play children and use them as a pawn in their twisted, emotionally complicated relationships that a child just doesn't understand.

I thought this movie really wove together all of the character's in such a way that it seemed natural that what happened next, did. People lose their innocence as they grow older, marriages fail and lose their splendor. Teenagers experience life changing events that leave them forever changed, and the lies between people leave nothing but emptiness. The little girl seemed to be the symbol of innocence, a quiet representative of who we all were once and the care free hope for something better that we all cling to thinking we have enough time to change it all. This movie focused more on character study and how each character affected the other rather than the traumatic events surrounding the little girl, Tara. Though that truly was the destruction of innocence at it's worst.

I definitely reccomend this movie, it is touching, dramatic, disturbing, and beautiful. It will make you think about the choices you make and the person you are.