Snow Angels (R) *** | Young filmmaker nails it cold

BY RENE RODRIGUEZ

rrodriguez@MiamiHerald.com

WARNER INDEPENDENT PICTURES

Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale go through hard times in Snow Angels.

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This review previously was published during the Miami International Film Festival last month.

With Snow Angels, 33-year-old filmmaker David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow) leaves his native South and the land of original screenplays to try his hand at adapting someone else's material.

The result is a perfect match of material and sensibility. Based on Stewart O'Nan's 2003 novel, Snow Angels may be more accessible and plot-driven than Green's previous films, but it shares many of their themes: young protagonists dealing with a sometimes cruel and dark world; an unexpected, almost absurdist approach to romantic relationships; and characters whose silence is sometimes deafening.

Although you can occasionally sense Green disciplining himself to stay on target and not go off on one of his lovely, lyrical tangents, his rigorousness pays off. The comedic tone of the first scene -- a high school band teacher is trying to inspire his talent-challenged students to get it together for their last home game -- is not representative of the tragic story that follows.

But that sleight of hand is intentional, since Green wants the viewer to be caught off-guard in the same way his characters are. They include Arthur (Michael Angarano), a shy teenager caught in the deliriously awkward transition from boy to young man; the eccentric girl in school (Olivia Thirlby) who has fallen for him; his parents (Jeanetta Arnette and Griffin Dunne), who have just separated and begun separate lives; and Arthur's co-worker (Kate Beckinsale), a waitress at a local restaurant raising a young daughter after the collapse of her marriage to her high school sweetheart (Sam Rockwell).

The performances are all excellent (Beckinsale in particular reveals dramatic chops she has never displayed before), doing justice to characters that are much more complex than they initially appear (even Amy Sedaris, cast in the normally throwaway role of a funny, irreverent waitress, turns out to do more than provide comic relief).

And it is crucial, in order for Snow Angels to work, that we believe in these people as they deal with their respective crises. Green may be a young man, but Snow Angels proves he already has an uncanny understanding of the swiftness with which tragedy can upend entire lives and how sometimes, the only thing that differentiates happy people from sad ones is the willingness to fight against a downward spiral.

Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Michael Angarano, Grace Hudson, Olivia Thirlby, Jeanneta Arnette, Nicky Katt, Amy Sedaris, Griffin Dunne

Writer-director: David Gordon Green. Based on the novel by Stewart O'Nan

Producers: Dan Lindau, Paul Miller, Lisa Muskat, Cami Taylor

A Warner Independent Pictures release. Running time: 106 minutes. Vulgar language, sexual situations, brief violence, adult themes. In Miami-Dade: South Beach; in Broward: Gateway.