May end up leaving you cold
Childhood friends Dan (Kevin Zegers) and Joe (Shawn Ashmore) along with Dan's girlfriend Parker (Emma Bell) spend a weekend at a ski resort. The three friends bribe the ski attendant to let them take one last run down the mountain. Before the friends reach the top, the ski attendant is replaced and tells his replacement that three more skiers are still left to come down. Once three other skiers come down the mountain, the attendant shuts down the lift, stranding the three friends in their ski lift far above the ground.
Frozen is a film centered around an interesting plot, trying to succeed by keeping the main characters stuck within one set place throughout the majority of the film's running time. But sadly, the film doesn't succeed where the superior Buried did in the very same year.
The first 20 minutes of the film are wisely used in an attempt to build up the characters, so that we'll care about the characters once they are trapped in their predicament. But the bad dialogue, weak characterization and all-round poor writing pretty much prevent this build up from succeeding in it's attempt, leaving these characters as not the most likable bunch.
I would say that the weak link within the three main actors has to be Kevin Zegers, as he gives a poor performance which manages to border on annoying. Emma Bell's performance isn't exactly good either, and it didn't help that I could not understand what she was saying through her whiny and weepy voice a few times, but I did feel that she improved as the film went on. Shawn Ashmore did give off the best performance, managing to convey his emotions well throughout his scenes.
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| It's always awkward when you forget to wipe away your milk moustache |
I felt that the film picked up a bit from when the scene turned to the characters being stuck on the lift during daylight. From that point on, I felt a little bit of a turn around for the film, as the tension was consistently built up at an even better pace, the characterization got slightly better and even the writing managed to improve.
I feel that I should give special mention to the make-up department for this film, who really did a great job in showcasing the effects of frostbite and the grim effect of bare skin upon an ice cold metal object, showing that removal is not as clean cut as Dumb and Dumber fooled you into believing it was.
Frozen isn't a terrible film, but it is one that I didn't feel used it's interesting plot to the full potential that could've been used, and could've been done much better. Frankly, you'd be better off watching the aforementioned Buried.
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