Movies
“The Big Chill” Is A People Talking Crowd Pleaser
The movie thrives with its slew of characters partaking in fast-paced and intellectual conversations, all in a confined environment.
“A group of seven former college friends gather for a weekend reunion at a South Carolina vacation home after the funeral of another of their college friends.”
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, Barbara Benedek
Cast: Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jef Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams, Don Galloway
Release Date: September 30, 1983
IMDB
The Big Chill (1983) ‘s premise is dower in nature, but director and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan deserves a ton of credit. The movie thrives with its slew of characters partaking in fast-paced and intellectual conversations, all in a confined environment.
The movie opens with Harold Cooper (Kevin Kline) and his wife Sarah (Glenn Close) getting a disastrous phone call that their old college friend Alex Marshall committed suicide at their vacation house. The passing of Alex acts as a beacon for old college friends to reconvene for the first time in a long time.
We have a Hollywood actor in Sam Weber (Tom Berenger), a single attorney in Meg Jones (Mary Kay Place), a writer and perv in Michael Gold (Jeff Goldblum), a Vietnam veteran with a drug addiction in Nick Carlton (William Hurt), and an unhappy housewife in Karen Bowens (JoBeth Williams), who is married to an outsider to the group, Richard (Don Galloway). The five visiting friends join Harold and Sarah in mourning Alex’s loss, and together, the seven of them must also play nice with Chloe (Meg Tilly), Alex’s younger girlfriend at the time of his passing.
It sounds like a ton of characters. It sounds like too many characters. But that is the beauty of The Big Chill. By the end of the movie, each one of these characters is identifiable and relatable in their own way. Everyone is given moments of weakness and moments to shine. Each character’s struggles with Alex’s death all lead to personal moments, but growth is not always guaranteed.
The Big Chill was nominated for three Oscars at the 1984 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Glenn Close) and Best Original Screenplay (Lawrence Kasdan, Barabara Benedek).
Terms Of Endearment (1983) took home the award for Best Picture. Linda Hunt won Best Supporting Actress for The Year Of Living Dangerously (1983), and Horton Foote’s penmanship took home Best Original Screenplay for Tender Mercies.
Going to be honest, I have never heard of Tender Mercies. And it is on this day that I realized that Edna from The Incredibles (2004) is visually based on Linda Hunt. They are the same person. Also, did you know Brad Bird did the voice for Edna?
Always fun to learn new things.
Wrapping this up full circle, the characters in The Big Chill learned many things about themselves and their friendships throughout their unique mourning process. Getting the gang all back together means that hard conversations and realizations have to happen. Reality setting in, and the facade of youthful idealism fading away always leads to lessons learned. Thankfully for all viewers of The Big Chill, Lawrence Kasdan and the cast lead the audience on the journey in an entertaining but truthful way.
The Big Chill is streaming on MAX.
STANKO RATING: B+
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