Stars:
*** 1/2
Rating: R for profanity,
violence and sexual situations
Run
Time: 1
hour, 45 minutes
Every step
is an anticipation of the next in David Gordon Greene’s exacting examination of
human frailty.
Snowy smalltown
USA, where real people lead real lives edged with adultery, divorce, and
restraining orders. Annie (Kate Beckinsale) is a frazzled working mom slinging
hash at the neighborhood Chinese joint and less than capably caring for five
year-old daughter Tara (Gracie Hudson).
Estranged
husband Glenn (the perpetually amazing Sam Rockwell) is a recovering alcoholic
and born-again Christian who appears to have regained control of his anger
management problems.
Annie is
having a clandestine fling with a friend’s husband and has murky family history
with teenage co-worker Arthur (Michael Angarano). Arthur’s own parents are
trial separating while he seeks solace with nerdy high-school newcomer Lila
(Olivia Thirlby).
Glenn
desperately tries to make peace with Annie while she struggles to deal with shifting
sentiments and domestic frustrations. Even while Glenn is making good he’s
spiraling into a guilt-induced freefall from which there may be no return.
As the
master of moods Greene wastes no time establishing the demons lurking at the
periphery of his protagonists’ dreams. He utilizes a barren, wintry landscape
to emphasize bitter cold temperatures, emotions and psyches. Imagery is stark
and effective as opposed to bleak for bleak’s sake. True to form it’s an
unbearably long time before something finally happens yet there’s no doubt that the other shoe is going to
drop with a resounding thud.
The piece
centers on performance; all players working together to fulfill Greene’s
narrative vision. Beckinsale and Angarano are superb but Rockwell deserves
year-end awards for his totally tortured soul who yearns to do the right thing.
I’m not
typically a Greene fan; his style (“George Washington”, “All the Real Girls”)
so precociously indie it makes my teeth ache. But the potential was always
there and he finally got it right.