The Big Chill - More 31 Days of Oscar

The Big Chill

Funerals for close friends and family are very confusing. On the one hand, a lot of people you love that you usually don't get to see very much all get together, which is always nice. But on the other hand, someone you care about is gone. So you almost feel guilty every time you're happy to see someone.

That's kind of where The Big Chill kicks off, A tight knit group of college friends meet up for the first time in years when one of their own kills himself. They've moved on from their idealistic college days and they're now mostly part of the establishment they had such a distaste for in college. Kevin Kline and Glenn Close are the happy married couple, and Kline is about to sell his business and make a lot of money. Tom Berenger stars in some kind of Magnum P.I. type show, but is kind of embarrassed by it. Jeff Goldblum a writer for People magazine, with aspirations of anything better. JoBeth Williams married to a safe but boring husband (and outsider to the group), but still has a thing for Berenger. William Hurt is a Vietnam vet with a drug problem and bigger issues with impotence. Mary Kay Place is comfortable being single but feels her biological clock ticking. And Meg Tilly is the deceased's girlfriend, much younger than the college friends, but, confused over her boyfriend's death, seems to gravitate to people who knew him.

A lot of great performances here, which, reading a little about it, seems to stem from the fact that the actors prepared by living together for several weeks beforehand. They all seem very comfortable in their roles, and interact together well. Also, a lot of great 60's pop tunes are worked in, which helps lighten the mood when things could drag down.

Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan (who wrote The Empire Strikes Back, but after an Oscar nomination here, pretty much retired from making fun movies) put together an interesting script, and then lets the actors take over from there. Which is all you really need for a movie like this. A pretty enjoyable film overall.