Saturday, April 12, 2008

"Are you ready to be my Sledgehammer?"

Some extra Snow Angels notes that did not make the review:

1) The film has many good scenes, but three really stick out.
a) A drunken Sam Rockwell, rejected in love, staggering around to the music in the bar. A birthday cake with lit candles sits on a pinball machine. It intertwines satire and pathos until there isn't a difference.
b) A conventional set-up with the teenager Arthur discussing with his father the fact that he has left the family. It's an unusually frank discussion in a movie full of them.
c) The opening scene, in which the high school marching band massacres Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer." From there, the bandleader leads into one of those inspriational speeches that teachers give, declaring "I have a sledgehammer in my heart" and asking the kids to bring out their inner sledgehammer. More quotable than "I drink your milkshake."

2) There's a lot of disagreement about the quality of Kate Beckinsale's performance. Was she good or bad? Or was she, and the film, a victim of miscasting? I thought she was good, as she usually is when not chasing vampires. I think it's arguable that she was miscast. That arguments has two prongs. One, what is arguably the most beautiful woman in the world doing living in a remote town, and two, what is she doing dating these losers? Having lived in small towns, I'm personally aware that they often have great beauties and that makeup has reached the hinterlands. So the first doesn't bother me. In fact, it's kinda refreshing. The second is a little harder. She did go to Oxford, and it's hard to hide her intelligence. Generally, I was fine with it, though.

3) Tim Orr remains magnificent.

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