DVD Review: “Cold Weather”
Doug (Cris Lankenau) has come to Portland to stay with his sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn) for the time being. He has dropped out of college. At dinner with their parents he suggests he might return. He and they seem unconvinced. The relationship with his sister seems uneventful, partially strained. They partake in activities together but don’t have much fun.
He takes a job at an ice factory. He makes a friend, Carlos (Raul Castillo), who yearns to be a club dee jay. They bond over the stories of Sherlock Holmes. Doug kinda digs forensic science.
His ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon) turns up. They hang out. They hang out with Carlos and his sister. Perhaps Carlos has a glimmer of affection for Rachel?
Cold Weather, it seems, is yet another entry in Aaron Katz’s quiet, contemplative relationship movies.
One night Carlos turns up at Doug’s apartment. Rachel has gone missing. Where? Why? They have no idea. They decide to investigate. Doug is Sherlock. Carlos is Watson. But then, naturally, gracefully, Gail transitions into the role of Watson.
A secretive code must be cracked. A mysterious briefcase becomes a Mumblecore McGuffin. Doug and Gail find themselves trailing a suspicious Cowboy. They wind up in a car chase that is to The French Connection what inner-tubing down the Iowa River is to the Go-fast boats in Miami Vice.
Cold Weather, it seems, was simply setting us up for yet another quiet, contemplative relationship movie before gradually morphing into a low budget, low key riff on Sherlock Holmes.
Seems is the critical word throughout.
Do you know what I can’t stand? I can’t stand watching a movie and having people as it progresses ask me things like: “Why is he/she doing that?” “Why would he/she go there?” “How does he/she know him/her?” You cannot ask these questions during Cold Weather under any circumstances and you cannot because you do not truly grasp what Cold Weather is about until the final shot. And then you realize it was about that the entire time.
This is not a Sixth Sense ending, designed specifically to conceal a twist. There is no twist. The film is a logical, organic progression to specific moment of character development that is so simple and so understated and yet so colossally perfect that it erupts from the screen like one of those pesky Icelandic volcanoes.
Cold Weather is released today on DVD. I’m telling you all this because, so far, it’s my favorite film of 2011. And it’s not one of those situations were it’s my favorite film by default since I’m still waiting for the award season heavy hitters. No, I got a feeling that when December 31st rolls around, this one’s still gonna have a whole lot of something to say.
A
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18 Comments
Nice review. This is hanging out at #2 in my Netflix queue right now, and your post just confirms that I need to check it out.
Thanks. I sincerely hope you like it.
I didn’t know of this movie before, but with a review like this i will have to check it out
Yes!!!
Great work man. I’ll have to look out for this. It hasn’t had a cinema release over here yet! Thanks for making me aware of this film. It seems like it could be an under-the-radar gem!
Yeah, it’s releases, theater and DVD, country to country are kind of all over the place. It’s just one of those sorts of movies. Just trying to make as many aware of it as I can.
Sounds like my type of movie. Hopefully I can catch this sometime soon.
This, in a way, sounds kind of like Brick. Some differences of course, but can you make a comparison between the two?
It’s really not too much like Brick. Brick was much, much more stylized and intent on kind of being of that old noir genre in the here and now. Cold Weather has some very basic elements of a Sherlock Holmes mystery (and a Dan Brown novel) but, again, just very basic. It’s very true to its low budget, Mumblecore roots.
Looking at the IMDB score this review surprises me, but at the same time makes me want to see this to find out what it’s like.
Sometimes I align with the majority (like with Black Swan) and sometimes I don’t so I can’t say for certain if this is just one of those movies that is really only going to be this special to me and some others. I feel like it could, maybe, possibly, appeal to a wider audience. I really do. Not TOO wide, but wider.
Great review. I enjoyed this as well, but not quite as much as you.
Thanks. Just glad to hear you saw it and enjoyed it.
I liked it, though I can’t say that I really understood the ending.
The dialogue was very choppy and was too forced at times. Felt the movie’s best parts were when all dialogue was dropped and pumped up the music.
I think that director’s M.O. is to let most of the dialogue be improvised. And when you don’t have the top-tier actors I can certainly see how it could come across choppy. I don’t know, I don’t mind it. In many ways, I kinda like it. That’s Mumblecore for you, though.
As for the end (“spoiler” alert!!!), it’s a rekindling of the stagnant brother/sister relationship. And ending up on this whole ridiculous quest to nab this briefcase is what did it. THAT’S what the whole movie was about! That last look Gail gives him with the little smile that just sells you on the moment, and then they’re listening to the music they listened to in high school, just like kids again….ah, it just blows me away. And you could have her say something to that effect – “Hey, were kids again” – but then it’s nowhere near as beautiful.
That’s how I read it. Either way, so glad you watched it, man.
I guess I would’ve like to have seen more of a disconnect between the two at the beginning then. I mean, they don’t exactly talk much, but it didn’t seem too out of the norm from my point of view. There’s not really an arc in the relationship that’s created throughout the film.
At first I wanted to say the ending was Coen-esque, but I’m thinking ’4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days’ might be a more proper comparison.
I don’t think their relationship was completely broken, or anything like that, it was just in the doldrums. And so were their individual lives, too. You’re right that it’s not very overt but, again, in the manner of this guy’s film, I personally like that. These are very ordinary lives that through the course of the movie briefly become something else.
Oh, and I couldn’t help but think Gail was a cross between a young Lucy Lawless and Shannen Doherty, with a little Amy Lee thrown in as well.
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