Gotta Have Faith

The troubled characters in Snow Angels hang on to their hopes.

by Cindy Fuchs

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HOPELESSLY DEVOUT TO YOU: A tragedy sends Kate Beckinsale back to her fundamentalist husband. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Lying in a motel room bed with her lover, Annie (Kate Beckinsale) looks lost and sad. Nate (Nicky Katt) comes up with a Hallmark-y sentiment to quiet her: "Today is a gift. That's why they call it the present." Annie smiles wanly. She welcomes the consolation.

Early in Snow Angels, Annie's struggling to make sense of life as a single mom to 4-year-old Tara (Grace Hudson). She's also trying to forgive her estranged husband, Glenn (Sam Rockwell). After a recent attempted suicide, Glenn wants to return to the past: "I'm not as much of a screw-up as you think I am," he insists, reminding Annie of the way he used to make her laugh with a funny dance. During an afternoon with Tara, Glenn instructs, "You tell your mom daddy's not drinking beer anymore." The child nods, at once wise and willing.

David Gordon Green's movie is full of such moments, small, beautiful, desperate. As Annie seeks to leave her past behind, Glenn seeks refuge in a reductive form of religion. Rafe (Daniel Lillford), his boss down at the carpet warehouse and fellow fundamentalist, quotes the Bible and says, "You can be lost, but you can be found."

Like Green's previous movies, from the brilliant George Washington to Undertow, Snow Angels is about faith. More precisely, it's about doubt and desire, the underpinnings of faith. Another story line reframes the problem: Annie's former baby-sitting charge, Arthur (Michael Angarano), is now a shy high-schooler who plays trombone in the marching band. His parents are splitting, his father moving out and his mother feeling abandoned. Lurching through this mess at home, Arthur finds Lila (Olivia Thirlby), a new student. When he gives her a pencil, she calls to thank him: "I really like the pencil that you gave me," she says, sincere and soothing. "It's a wonderful gift."

If Lila's gift feels real, Annie's unravels. A tragedy sends her spinning, most terribly into an acceptance of Glenn's worst, most blindly pious judgment. At this point, Snow Angels loops back to its very first scene, a band practice in the crunchy snow. The bandleader (Tom Noonan) barks his disappointment. He feels a sledgehammer in his chest, he says, as he pursues perfection. "Are you ready to be my sledgehammer?" The kids blink and wait, unsure what to answer. It's a crazy, unfathomable question. It's about faith.

(c_fuchs@citypaper.net)

SNOW ANGELS

Directed by David Gordon Green

A Warner Independent Pictures release