The Big Chill
I get the love people might have for “The Big Chill.” Lawrence Kasden’s follow-up to “Body Heat” has a phenomenal soundtrack, one of the most natural ensemble casts anyone has ever put together, one which made careers. I get it, but I do not feel it. There are entertaining interactions between these characters, to be sure, but is there really anything about this film that merits inclusion with the classics besides its soundtrack? I don’t know that I can say that for me.
The film begins with Harold (Kevin Kline) giving his son a bath when Sarah (his wife, played by Glenn Close) answers the phone. It turns out their friend from college, Alex, killed himself. Alex had stayed with them for a time with his younger girlfriend, Chloe (Meg Tilly), but he was living elsewhere when he took his life. Harold and Sarah join several other friends from college in going to his funeral, and Harold invites all of them to stay at their vacation home for the weekend. It has been a while since many of them have seen one another, and the time together does them good.
Alex was famously played by Kevin Costner during production, but, by the time the film came out, all of his scenes had been cut. This is, if I’m being honest, for the best in this film. Without seeing or hearing Alex, Kasden’s characters are responsible for giving us an image of Alex in their words and memories, and if we saw him at any point in the film, I’m not sure if it would have been as effective. The way Sarah breaks down at their first dinner together, wishing they had put a chair out for him. Chloe talking about their brief time together. Nick (William Hurt) and Sam (Tom Berenger) arguing about the importance Alex had in people’s lives after college, and an old article Michael (Jeff Goldblum) wrote about him back in college that brings out further memories for the group the morning they all leave. Costner’s entire role might have been cut, but his character is as vital a piece of this film as any of the characters we live with in this film are. It was a smart choice by Kasden to go this route.
“The Big Chill” has a solid premise, extremely well executed by Kasden, though I’m not sure if it’s as meaningful as it thinks it is. The film looks at these characters, bringing them together for the first time in over a decade, and through their interactions with one another, we get a picture of them as they were when they were together at the University of Michigan, and how their lives have become extremely different over the years. That’s a good idea, but it feels like Kasden inserts subplots that have less to do with the characters themselves- like Karen (JoBeth Williams) saying she’s going to divorce her husband, Richard, to be with TV star Sam- and more about creating needless conflicts for the characters to get involved in, such as when Nick is escorted home by a police officer. I wouldn’t include Meg (Mary Kay Place) wanted a baby, and how that plays out, as an example of this, because the setup of that part of her character is established before we see how it develops through the film, tying in to a part of Harold and Sarah’s relationship that feels unnecessary at first, but is genuinely engaging, how we see it pay off. This is, essentially, a closed room movie, where the characters are in confined quarters, and their interactions are the drama, and humor, of the film. There’s a lot of good and interesting in the way Kasden approaches it, primarily because of how well he cast the film, but there are moments when it feels flat, as well. Thank God he has a killer soundtrack.
