Snow Angels

Everything works perfectly. This minimalist shot film deals with relationships separated into several stories and roughly in the middle, an unexpected event breaks, from which the film falls into a tough and raw drama with excellently played characters by Kate Beckinsale and especially Sam Rockwell. The dialogues are real and urgent, the cold snowy landscape provides a fantastically captivating atmosphere, and the slow ethereal music only adds color to this superbly directed piece that may probably have a hard time gaining wider recognition, but that doesn't take away from its quality at all. Beckinsale delivers maybe the best performance of her career so far. (10/12/2008)

Seemingly nothing is happening here, the inhabitants are marked by everyday routine, and the suffocating atmosphere of a small town occasionally manifests itself in a small scandal or radical act that becomes the main gossip for a while. It took a while to embrace these rules, but enjoying the escalating mood is worth it. The sad paradox is that although the script sets the stage for the ending from maybe halfway through, it ultimately undermines itself with its unnecessary haste. 70% and rounding down for that final disappointment. (03/17/2009)