I felt so empty after I had to have a share bag of M&Ms

Rating: 2/10 (13 September 2017)

Half way throw watching this film my sister turned to me and said "Is it freezing in here or is it just the snow?". Now I, too was feeling chilly to the marrow of my bones but less to do with the snowy visuals and more to do with the relentlessly sombre atmosphere of the film. I would go as far as to say I left with frost bite of the soul. I have heard it said from critics that the desolate portrayal of this story was perhaps daring and effective but as an audience member I felt stretched to my limits without moments of relief. The beautiful wide shots of snowy Wyoming where reminding me that I'd rather be watching an arctic episode of Planet Earth, at least our David Attenborough actually enunciates. One big issue I found with this film was that I couldn't understand what the characters where saying! The audio quality just wasn't sharp enough but even when I was understanding I found the conversations about grief too over-laboured. I think in order to establish real poignancy in these more emotional scenes there needs to be some light and shade in the films presentation. I think if the film had established some contrasting scenes with moments of comedy or warmth then I would have felt more emotionally invested in the film during the tragic moments. I don't understand why the film was presenting as a murder mystery because in reality the reveal at the end felt like a presentation of the information we already new from the start.