The Big Chill Reviews

Count me in as one of the detractors of this film. As one of the many who this as Exhibit A of what can, and does, make the Baby Boomer generation so goddamn insufferable whenever they go off on their “You had to be there, man” nostalgia riffs. The film views these characters with sympathy, but I couldn’t muster up much for them.

This group of people can’t seem to look beyond their navels. If they do, it’s only to then look towards the past with rose-tinted glasses, believing that the time that they came up was somehow the pinnacle of achievement. It frequently feels like self-indulgence of a bunch of wealthy white people unable to see their mass privilege. To be perfectly blunt about it, here’s a group of seven supremely glib people who treat the eighth, the audience surrogate, as a child when she’s really just a slightly younger member of their generation.

Shame to, as the ensemble on this thing is stacked with powerhouse acting titans. Jeff Goldblum, Glenn Close, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Tom Berenger, JoBeth Williams, Meg Tilly, and Mary Kay Place give the script better life than it deserves. They deliver their series of unnecessarily clever one-liners with consummate skill. Try as they might though, they can’t overcome how easily the script leans on humor in place of real emotion and feeling.

If all of this nostalgia and introspection had been given more true emotional life, I probably wouldn’t have been so blasé on the whole enterprise. It scored to a phenomenal soundtrack, at times employed with cringe-inducing sequences, and stacked with a fabulous ensemble, so The Big Chill is never without its merits. It’s just so damn manipulative. Leaning on hard on these well-to-do white folks using the music of the Civil Rights era as their soundtrack for a weekend getaway is questionable if I’m being generous, and offensive if I’m being honest. And have I mentioned how much I dislike the pithy dialog? But that damn cast, though. The Big Chill is a movie that has me slightly split, cause where it’s good it soars, but where it’s bad, it’s smugly self-congratulatory.

Back in the 80’s, Lawrence Kasdan was really on fire. Not only he wrote some of the biggest box-office successes of the time (‘Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back’, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, ‘Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi’) , he managed also to launch a very successful directing career as well. Unfortunately, later on, his movies were honestly not that good and it has been at least 20 years since he has written or directed something really worthwhile. Anyway, this movie was his second directing effort and, even though it is nowadays pretty much forgotten, it was really critically heralded when it was released. Indeed, there was quite an impressive cast (Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Meg Tilly) and they all delivered some solid performances which were probably the most attractive aspect of this flick. There was even Kevin Costner who was unknown at the time but his scenes were cut eventually. Personally, I enjoyed above all William Hurt who was one of the best actors at work in the 80’s. Such a shame his career didn’t keep up later on as he is definitely one of the most underrated actors at work nowadays. Anyway, I think it is a really good drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.