Snow Angels

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Snow Angels ★★★ 2007 (R)

Tragedy tolls with the sound of distant gunfire as a high school marching band rehearses on the football field, stunning the students into silence. Flash back several weeks to a dreary, snowy northwest small town, where newly divorced waitress (Annie) and her on-the-edge ex (Rockwell) navigate a tense relationship and share custody of their four-year-old child. Annie's sleeping with a co-worker's (Sedaris) husband, while another young co-worker Arthur (Angarano), who she used to babysit, is in the apprehensive beginning stages of a high school romance with Lila (Thirlby). Director Green likes to dump you into his films and let you figure out your emotions along with the characters, which sometimes makes for uncomfortable viewing, but the tactic works in this study of love and loss in a claustrophobic town. 106m/C DVD . US Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Michael Angarano, Jeanetta Arnette, Griffin Dunne, Nicky Katt, Olivia Thirlby, Amy Sedaris, Tom Noonan, Connor Paolo, Hudson Grace; D: David Gordon Green; W: David Gordon Green; C: Tim Orr; M: Jeff McIlwain.