SYNOPSIS:
A
typical day on the slopes turns into a chilling nightmare
for three snowboarders when they get stranded on the chairlift
before their last run. As the ski patrol switches off the
night lights, they realize with growing panic that they've
been left behind dangling high off the ground with no way
down.
With
the resort closed until the following weekend and frostbite
and hypothermia already setting in, the trio is forced to
take desperate measures to escape off the mountain before
they freeze to death. Once they make their move, they discover
with horror that they have much more to fear than just the
frigid cold. As they combat unexpected obstacles, they start
to question if their will to survive is strong enough to overcome
the worst ways to die.
MOVIE REVIEW:
The cover may allude to Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws”- touting that this movie will do for skiing what “Jaws” did for swimming- but the comparison should really be drawn with the 2003 movie “Open Water”. Both feature a similar “what-if” premise of man-against-nature and both are done in the same deliberately minimalist fashion- so if you liked “Open Water”, you’ll probably enjoy “Frozen” just as much.
The “what-if” question in “Frozen” is this- what if you were trapped atop a chairlift in the freezing winter? To flesh out this terrifying scenario, writer/director Adam Green does just that to three skiers- Dan (Kevin Zegers), Joe (Shawn Ashmore) and Parker (Emma Bell), Dan and Parker of whom are a couple and Joe the third wheel. The relationships between the characters only matter in the first 20 mins of the movie, which is admittedly no more than filler to build up to the intense and nail-biting latter part.
A mix-up at the bottom of the hill leaves the trio stranded in mid-air far up the slope on a wintry Sunday night, with the resort not due to open until the next weekend. To stay up there would mean certain death by hypothermia some time or another, so it’s inevitable that they will try to escape. One such ill-conceived plan has Dan deciding to make a jump from the lift onto the hard snow below, resulting in broken legs and protruding bones- that is, until the scent of blood draws the wolves.
They bicker over what to do next, as the cold sets in and their faces turn red with frostbite. Green knows to make the most of these scenes of waiting to emphasize their helplessness. Their fear is palpable even for audiences (this reviewer included) without benefit of any skiing experiences- what more then it must be for those who have actually been atop a chairlift and know exactly how vulnerable one is amidst the elements.
Shawn Ashmore and Emma Bell also make for pleasant enough characters, so even if the sparse screenplay doesn’t really let us get to know them better and care a bit more about their fates, you’d still be rooting for them to survive the ordeal. How it pans out for the two of them isn’t at all clear during the movie, and Green milks this unpredictability for a fair deal of suspense as one awaits the unfolding of their calamity.
This process of waiting may however prove disappointing for some expecting high-concept action, but Green’s low-key approach in fact keeps the movie authentic- which ultimately is what is needed to make such a movie work. A film like “Frozen” works only if it can tap into our real fears when presented with its “what-if” scenario, and even if it does stretch the premise a little thin, Green’s film is a tense 94-minutes that you pray you won’t encounter one day.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
NIL.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is clear- but one wishes the experience could have been more terrifying with a 5.1 track. Visuals are equally pristine and sharp, and the contrast during the night scenes is well-balanced.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Gabriel Chong
Posted
on 8 November 2010
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