The Big Chill
  

Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, Barbara Benedek
Music Consultant: Meg Kasdan
Cast:

• Tom Berenger — Sam
• Glenn Close — Sarah
• Jeff Goldblum — Michael
• William Hurt — Nick
• Kevin Kline — Harold
• Mary Kay Place — Meg
• Meg Tilly — Chloe
• JoBeth Williams — Karen
    
• Don Galloway — Richard
• James Gillis — minister
• Ken Place — policeman

Columbia Pictures: 1983

The Big Chill is an amazing film. I first saw it many years ago, and considered it interesting, well done, and memorable. More recently I've watched it a number of times and found substantially more texture and structure: it almost seems like a different movie, having underwent a sea-change into something rich and strange. The screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and Barbara Benedek is as sharp and tight as a Swiss watch, and the direction ensures the actors bring characters and themes to vivid life. So if you will indulge me, I'll share some results of what I've learned to call close reading, a skill I've worked at honing especially for the printed word: anything from philosophy to drafts of my novels.

The rich layers of the film seem inexhaustible. Even the weather is integrated. There is what I must suspect is a quietly bright literary allusion. To pick up and correlate all this fascinating detail on first watching The Big Chill would require a memory and discernment almost unimaginable, with clues and references pointing forward or backward in the plot, or even both ways. You may be more easily or quickly sensitive to conversational cues and social nuances than myself (admittedly a low bar). Still, I hope you will find some interesting and informative insights here. Most of what I talk about may seem minor points, so if you haven't yet seen the movie, there should be no plot spoilers here.
  

Let's begin with a note on the excellent soundtrack of hit songs from when the characters were young men and women. The first major presence is "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (Marvin Gaye, 1968): background to the characters' individual receipt of news of the death of their old friend Alex, and further suggesting one of the major themes. All songs are carefully chosen, the lyrics often striking and overtly pulling the plot along. The music is layered with the movements of plot and the revelations of personality. Occasionally even passages within a song correspond to brief actions in real time.
  

The prime mover really is Alex, whom we never meet in person: it is his very recent death, the "big chill" of irremediable distance and loss, which brings all these college friends together for his funeral and their weekend reunion afterwards. Alex is the central character in memory. Via the others' poignant and sometimes annoyed reminiscences we learn a lot about his history and life choices. The mutual love among all Alex's friends is strong: his presence among them is missed terribly. The quicksilver Chloe is the one newer main character, the late Alex's girlfriend.

The Big Chill is an ensemble performance. All have strong personalities and important roles. The casting is perfect: each actor does a wonderful job, with expressive faces, body language, and voices which become recognizable even when they are momentarily not visible in a scene. The dialogue is excellent. Watch who best harmonize with each other, fall out of harmony or clash, try to resolve old romantic tangles, really understand each other.
  

My favorite characters are Nick (played by Wiliam Hurt) and Harold (played by Kevin Kline). Each contributes fine deadpan humor along with an impressive emotional range. Without wanting to slight the other players, I'll say a little about these two.

Nick has been a professional psychologist in San Francisco. He's put in the most effort to get to the funeral and reunion, driving all the way. His psychological approach often shows a Socratic overlook enabling him to speak what others haven't seen. An early exchange between Meg and Nick lays out the challenge and the event which brought them all back together. Several of the college friends come to their reunion with personal agendas, but Nick has a general strategy for interacting with the others; often with a quite relaxed delivery. (There is a throwaway clue near the middle of the movie, hiding in plain sight.) Of the old friends, he is the most aware, and the most playful.

Harold and his delightful wife Sarah are the owners of the lovely house and estate in Beaufort, South Carolina, where the reunion takes place. Harold has built a successful multistate athletic-shoe business. He's the stable and resilient center of the reunion, a confident and strong peacemaker. While most of the music plays as background, albeit focused, it is Harold who near the middle of the movie puts onto the turntable his record of “Ain't Too Proud to Beg” (Temptations, 1966): a high-energy song with multiply-applicable lyrics.

For me, Nick and Harold's plot arcs mesh more interestingly than any other combination of characters. Throughout, they understand each other quite well. The arcs I refer to are neatly bracketed by the very first and very last scenes in which they are alone together. In the first of these paired brief scenes, each man speaks only one sentence, to mildly amusing effect. In the last, they have been conversing but we do not hear it; we do not need to. — A small but vital high point of the film's brilliant writing.
  

What more can I say? There's a lot more I could tell you, but you should see for yourself: the above is only a selection and a sketch. But is The Big Chill enjoyable on its surface? Definitely, on each viewing.

Is it funny? Often. Emotionally moving? There are few films which have brought tears to my eyes; this one has, more than once.

Are there riches of discoverable nuances to keep it always fresh? Every time I have seen The Big Chill, I have heard or seen, connected or understood, or simply enjoyed some detail or insight effectively new to me. Every single time.

  
Adults Only.

  
© 2024 Robert Wilfred Franson