The Forecast Was Cold

I’ve just finished watching THE SAVAGES on dvd, a movie about dying. It’s written and directed by Tamara Jenkins and if I’m not mistaken, she was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2008 for her efforts. Academy Award nod or not, it was a professional piece of business. Laura Linney and Seymour Philip Hoffman were the principal actors, and though they certainly didn’t need to stretch their acting chops to convincingly inhabit their roles, it was a . . . uh, professional piece of business. Philip Bosco as the elderly father who succumbs to dementia was equally maleable.

But I’m not here to write a review of the film. It was okay, can’t really say it was extraordinary in any thread one might care to follow: writing, acting, directing, camera, editing, production design. But then I don’t believe every movie should strive to be extraordinary. I’d prefer instead that the film makers would stay within the confines of how best to tell the story convincingly. I suppose I’m being stingy in my good opinion of this movie, but with all the talent involved, I'd hoped for a more original take on familial dysfunction and trauma, something above and beyond a professional piece of business. Or maybe I’m lying. I’m so sick of movies about dysfunctional families that I could eat a big spaghetti dinner with a green salad and garlic bread then vomit all over the front gate of Twentieth Century Fox Studios, which I believe distributed this film. All studios can be blamed for trotting out similar stories based loosely around psychologically troubled families. They keep going to the same well, we keep swilling the same polluted product they offer. Indies are probably equally to blame alongside studio pictures in this regard. They do, after all, have to sell their story to money people--those who trust a well-worn track into the profit margin.

So what can I say about the film that I found gripping? Nothing but the weather. However, I loved the weather. The film opens in Sun City, Arizona—one of the truly odd and borderline surreal landscapes in our country. I’ve been to Sun City. Many years ago I helped a friend who shot a photo essay about the community. It was the first time I'd ever seen Astro turf used for a lawn, or topiary made from cactus, or Santa Claus in Bermuda shorts. It appears from viewing this movie that the area still boasts the stridently-manicured, sun-drenched motif of many other Southwestern retirement communities: golf courses, senior centers, swimming pools, rambling ranch houses uncluttered by power or telephone lines. Golf carts replace Mercedes Benz sedans, and American flags are flown proudly and often. The community is primarily elderly, but the cloying smell of death is nowhere to be found. Death in Sun City is faced with a suntan and a smile. And though I enjoyed the beginning 20 minutes of the movie shot in this enclave of septuagenarian spunk, where even the local Ramada Inn floor-show belts songs exclusively from the 1940’s, I liked the East Coast location even more.

The camera loves Buffalo, New York. In SAVAGES, the family is forced to re-locate during the patriarch’s illness to Buffalo for practical reasons. The eldest son is a drama teacher at one of the un-named Universities and his younger sister, now almost 40 herself, moves in with him. The father is placed in a nursing home due to his dementia and our story is allowed to proceed with all the markers firmly established. I’m a big sucker for films shot out of doors in “weather.” To me, shooting in rain, snow, cold, storm is courageous and beautiful. Courageous, because the weather is a fickle member of the crew. It may show up completely different from one day to the next, or sometimes from one hour to the next. Continuity can be costly, or even impossible. But when it works, and the crew is filming our actors on the high rolling storm-washed seas, or the winter streets of old sections of Buffalo, the weather becomes an important character. In Buffalo during late Autumn and Winter, the look of steamy breath, or cloud-like car exhaust proves the cold, proves the uncomfortable movement of living in layers of thick clothes and boots. The Vincent Gallo movie BUFFALO 66 benefited from even seedier Buffalo locations. The timbre of that movie was certainly reinforced by the dull, cold streets, where to leave the comfort of your dreams is to suffer.

See, I’m a Southern California guy, born and raised. I’ve been in cold climes, but only for short periods. I’ve never had to shovel snow, wear winter clothes like they wore in FARGO to match the Minnesota winter. I can play in the snow, or the squall and know that I’ll soon be winging home to the land of dry heat and wildfires. East Coast winter scenes take movies out of the Sound Stage environment and place them in a foreign landscape every bit as unfamiliar to me as those lands in Peter Jackson’s FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING TRILOGY, or the leaky streets in BLADERUNNER. Shooting in weather is like having a large special effects budget, but without the cost. Of course, that’s if all goes well. If the skies and temperatures balk at the producer’s demands, it could cost quite a bit of money in post production to make continuity believable; lots of people at computers painting and tracking snow elements, or compositing rain, fog, clouds, shadows, skies. And usually it is only a patchwork fix, causing scenes to be edited differently than originally scripted and shot. But, I love those scenes, and the look of films shot in “weather.”


Another movie I saw not so long ago which made great use of the winter landscape was titled FROZEN RIVER by first time writer-director Courtney Hunt. The movie was set along the New York State/Canadian border, exposing rural poverty in America. An America rarely witnessed on national news. The story concerned a single mom as head of what used to be called an “underprivileged family.” She becomes the wary partner of a young Mohawk Indian woman from the local reservation in illegally smuggling Asian workers across the frozen, snow-blanketed river which acts as our national demarcation line.

Melissa Leo shows herself once again to be in an elite group of actresses. Her performance is charged with frustrated emotion straining to burst-out, to attack, and yet held in check by the character's rationale. Although I don't see many contemporary American films (the snob factor), I did see her shine in 21 GRAMS, alongside Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro. She also impressed me in THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA working with actor/director Tommy Lee Jones. She's middle-aged, earthy, smart, valorous, combustible and seems willing to drain herself body and soul to possess the character she is asked to portray. Her work in FROZEN RIVER was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award in 2009. I think they gave it to Pia Zadora or Elizabeth Taylor.

Courtney Hunt the writer and director of FROZEN RIVER was also nominated to receive an Academy Award for best original screenplay. Amazing for a debut effort. It was an indie movie which hit the theaters early in the year and was forgotten soon thereafter, however it was received well by critics and international film festivals. It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year, Melissa Leo won the Stockholm Bronze Horse for her role, all in all it won 23 awards and was nominated for an additional 14.

Largely it’s a story of families, and those who wish to have families, fighting to provide the fundamental needs of food, fuel for heat, a roof over their heads, warm clothes. The weather is severe, cruel and relentless. It mirrors their predicaments and makes one wonder just how tough human beings have to become merely to exist. It is a skirmish in a class war, there are casualties, there are rebuffs, there are emotions and sacrifices we choose to call “love.” Christ but it looked cold.


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