Review of The Big Chill (1983) by Ben R — 29 Mar 2015

It's surprising to me that this movie is kind of a classic. There are some good things in it, but I was surprised to see that Glenn Close was Oscar-nominated, and same goes for the screenplay. In general, I'm just surprised that the movie has sparked such vehement reactions on either side. Apparently there are Gen-Xers who hate this movie? I don't see what's so time-dependent about it. Overall, I thought it was just okay-to-decent.

Probably the best part of the movie is the idea of the movie itself. I love the idea of friends gathering and reconnecting after an old friend dies, and currently being part of a group of college friends makes me wonder about similar scenarios sometimes. It was really interesting seeing old friends in this movie and applying it to my own life and future. It's a really smart idea, and it works pretty well. You get a sense for the history of this group, and the characters feel like they really were friends.

Unfortunately, I found the characters themselves lacking a little. William Hurt's character, Nick, was one of the stronger characters, in part because the film draws a bit of a parallel between him and Alex (the dead friend). At some points, it seems like the film is trying to make him the group's second chance of saving Alex's life, like if they couldn't save Alex, they can at least save Nick. The movie doesn't delve very deep into that, though. Aside from him, there were a lot of bland characters, like Harold and Sarah. The characters' mini-arcs weren't very interesting, and most didn't culminate; the movie just kind of ended. That's part of the reason why I wonder why the screenplay is Oscar-nominated. There were some smart, clever one-liners now and then, especially during the natural banter between friends, but the film doesn't seem to pose any tough questions about love or loss. This would be totally fine if the characters were at least interesting, but they're mostly not. They're entertaining, and they show potential, but they're not super complex.

I think part of that is that so much of the conflict is boiled down to romance. I like the idea of exploring an old relationship being reignited, but it makes Karen's character super simplistic. And there's some potential to Sam's embarrassment about his career, but that gets glossed over, too, in favor of the lackluster romance. Then there's Nick and Chloe, and the weird triangle with Harold eventually sleeping with Meg to give her a child. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but that arc was just very strange just in how random of a digression it was. And then, hanging over it all is Jeff Goldblum trying to get every woman in the house to sleep with him. So...yeah. He gets some clever lines.

Overall, I found the movie entertaining, but not very profound. It had a great premise and delivered entertainment and some laughs throughout, but failed to execute anything ground-breaking or even particularly deep. Not every movie has to do that, but it could've been a lot better if it did. It makes me wonder why the movie is such a classic.