Frozen, solid.

Ok, maybe I’ve been a little bar-hum-bug of late, let’s face it, it’s more fun to write a bad review, stick your claws in and draw blood than write “Fuck, that was awesome”. Doesn’t leave much room for any further commentary now does it? Ok, so, while Adam Green’s Frozen doesn’t quite fall into the afore mentioned awesome category, I did really like it. I’d have to say that Frozen also redeems Mr. Green for me. I was one of those who couldn’t see what all the fuss was about with Hatchet (nothing happens for half-the-movie!!!). I liked Frozen immediately, that is, in the first handful of shots. Through images and atmos sound alone, a menace is conveyed in regard to the ski lift at the centre of this story. No words. No exposition. Actual filmmaking. You go Mr. Green! The story is a simple and effective one. People stuck in a seemingly futile situation of which the only escape maybe their death. This, of course, describes the basic storyline of thousands of movies, but it’s what you do with it, how you treat it and your audience that matters. The characters are likable but not twee and their banter is reasonable for their age without being like you know, like totally annoying. The biggest asset this film has is the absolutely inescapable position these characters are placed. Not since Open Water has a predicament been so futile... these characters are fucked! Big time! Throw in some hungry wolves in place of sharks just to make things worse and it’s all practically unbearable. The natural acting from our trio in peril adds greatly, they are all uniformly good. For example: when Emma Bell gives a tearful speech concerning her realisation that if she were to die her dog back home would starve to death. This could have easily been corny, but is delivered so well that you start to get all worried about her dog too. While a small criticism would be that the three characters do spend a little too much time talking about their friendship and it feels like padding, Frozen ticks a lot of boxes.