Dead Of Winter: Movie Review

Cast: Emma Thompson, Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca, Laurel Marsden, Gaia Wise
Director: Brian Kirk

It's very easy to categorise Dead Of Winter as a Fargo-esque wannabe rip-off.

With its snowy vistas, occasionally incompetent villains and distinctive accents, it's a comparison and label that's too hard to ignore.

But what that does is provide a massive disservice to one of Dame Emma Thompson's incredible performance and to an exhilarating film which surprises as much as it enthrals.

Thompson is Barb, who we first meet heading out in North Minnesota in the middle of a snow blizzard, her truck iced over and her destination and reasons for doing so seemingly unknown. But as she sets up in the middle of a frozen lake, she hears a gunshot and a woman scrambling desperately for safety.

Following from a safe distance, Barb soon finds a woman trapped and tied up in a basement. Determined to help her, she promises not to leave her alone and soon finds herself caught up in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse.

Dead Of Winter works brilliantly to provide an icy thriller that grips as hard as frostbite does.

It's a career best from Thompson and a regretful sign she's never taken - or been offered - more roles like Barb. While the backstory sees her played by her own daughter, Thompson fleshes out the character to maximum effect with a story that's as narratively bleak as the snowy vistas surrounding her.

The reason she works so brilliantly in this is due to the film's touches of reality.

Barb is no superhero, she's a grief-stricken woman bound up in a big snow-pants bodysuit. When she runs from danger, she's ungainly and constantly in danger of being outwitted by the film's antagonist, the vicious Judy Greer (another excellent performance in a film that's blessed with many). She has the relatable factor throughout, and it's extremely engaing to behold.

At its heart, Dead Of Winter is about grief and the lengths you'd go to for love- but in surprising ways too spoilery to discuss here. Director Brian Kirk has concocted a taut tale that's well-executed and beautifully shot - you can practically feel the cold biting into you from the screen.

But Dead Of Winter is Thompson's film through and through.

If there's any justice, she'll receive accolades for it - and hopefully, more roles of its ilk will come her way before it's too late.