*Spoilers* Arthur is a high school student working in a Chinese restaurant with Annie who in earlier days was his babysitter. Arthur confesses to having lusted for Annie in those days and you wonder just how old he was when still requiring Annie as a babysitter. Annie has broken up with her husband Glenn who is a suicidal alcoholic, as well as being an agonizingly conflicted evangelical Christian who quotes from the Bible. Glenn is obsessed with getting back with Annie, but she is having an affair with Nate, her best friend's husband. Nate smokes dope and sees other women on the side. Arthur's parents are separating, since his father is having an affair. Arthur is beginning an intimate relationship with classmate Lila.

Too much to digest in one movie you say? I agree. There are several stories here, any one of which might have made a good movie.

This movie does not let up from its foreboding opening that has Arthur's marching band practice interrupted by distant gunshots. From there it spirals downward to the tragic death of a young girl and a ritual murder/suicide. All proceedings take place against a backdrop of cold and snow.

The movie kept my interest but I am puzzled as to what I am supposed to take away from it. Life is messy? Beware of drunks with shotguns? Don't take up with your best friend's spouse? Never nap when alone with a small child? Death is the ultimate repentance?

The underlying novel and this film stole my planned novel! I live in Northeast Pennsylvania (the film is set in Southwest PA). I'm one of those who threaten, promise, etc., to write a book someday but probably never will. But my main idea was to write about one of the ancient defunct communities that dot the old coal and oil regions of the state.

SNOW ANGELS does a great job at depicting lives in such communities. Especially during that part of the year when the landscape is barren and suicides spike. The profound sense of hopelessness is evident in many of the characters. Those without resources fall into profound despair. Those better off look into themselves. The result is always tragic or counter-productive. Only youth sees promise, has hope, etc.

The film was far from perfect: Rockwell and Beckinsale's story line so dominates that the lives of the other characters become almost a distraction. I doubt that's what the author intended. The climax pays off in intensity but is predictable. But the acting and script are exceptional as is the pacing and mood. For those who think the film lacks plot, the simple depiction of setting and life are story enough.

Snow Angels isn't exactly the kind of film you would readily seek out unless you're looking for those dark and deep dramas that almost act as a form of purgation for the viewer. Or, perhaps, you just want to see some really well crafted relationships explored with enough adherence to the story that moments of visual fancy can strike at any moment. But as a film sought out as such, it's superb, and perhaps even one of the best of its sort; sort as in that fairly small but noticeable bunch of small-town-affected-by-death stories (Sweet Hereafter comes to mind as one, however a little larger in scope with the casualties if not grief). I was sucked into this ensemble of misery and grief and remorse, but also aware of those moments, if mostly early on, where director David Gordon Green finds what's essentially good and even humorous in the human condition - before, that is, he knocks it down with what happens.

It's hard entirely to talk about what happens without spoiling, so it should just be said: the central premise of the picture is that a very young child, the daughter of waitress Annie (Beckinsale) and home-depot-esquire worker Glenn (Rockwell), drowns under a lake of ice when wandering without the care of her sleeping mother at home. At least, that's the most as-a-given tragic part of it. It's also about the fractured lives of these characters, the failure of her romantic life (aside from her separation from alcoholic/born-again but well-meaning Glenn is her bad affair with married Nicky Katt's character Nate), and about how comparatively the teenage characters- Artie, once babysat by Annie and Artie's newfound girlfriend Lila- are as normal as possibly imaginable. Artie, as well, has a dysfunctional bond with his parents, who have also separated, but on a more fragile but caring wavelength than Annie and Glenn and Nate.

And as the crux of it is the little girl, most innocent of all in the story, who propels further tragedy and harrowing catharsis forward. What's most impressive though with all these possibly troublesome plot and character threads is that Green never misses the humanity inherently found in these people. Another director might just make a caricature out of Glenn- frankly, from the trailer, I thought it might be just that and that Annie appeared most sympathetic, which just isn't true- but he's so fully rounded that it's hard to realize that there's some fairly clichéd things to his persona (i.e. drinker, born-again, suicide attempter). Or even some minor characters like those of Katt and Sedaris, who aren't let off the hook as just being not as important to the plot as Annie and Glenn; they work just as well for the myriad of flaws all abound in these people who don't know what to do with themselves- particularly after the drowning.

And don't let the other reviewers fool you easily: this isn't just "bleak" for the heck of it. On the contrary it's just bleak enough for what the story requires it, and there's not only some perfectly realized scenes that explore this terrifying feeling of things falling apart (aside from Glenn and Annie, Artie with his flip-flopper father played by Griffin Dunne), but some that would come off weird elsewhere but fit right into the sorrow of the piece like Glenn's late-night dance with the two barflies. Not to mention Green casts so particularly that it's hard not to get caught up with the performances; Rockwell especially is Oscar-worthy here (whatever that means), and Beckinsale gives about as good as one has ever seen her, least since her Underworld days, not to mention some subtle work from young Angarano and an uncommon dramatic turn by Sedaris. It's all wonderfully naturalistic, with just those shots of terrifying melodrama thrown in in perfect measure.

Snow Angels is one of the very best dramas of the year, certainly one of the few in recent memory to keep to a conventional setting with unconventional results, and yet as much and as extremely I'd recommend it to anyone interested (Green fans or otherwise, it's a great place to start if looking for the flip-side to Pineapple Express) it's not something I'd want to watch again very soon. I mean that as a compliment, as a fully and satisfyingly draining experience should do.