The Big Chill

Year: 1983
Genre: Drama
Directed: Lawrence Kasdan
Stars: Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams, Don Galloway
Production: Columbia Pictures

"No one ever said it would be fun. At least they never said it to me," says Richard (Galloway) the outsider of a group of college buddies now in their thirties. He talks about adulthood as if it's a rueful inevitability; less a right of passage than a chore. The rest of the ensemble cast of The Big Chill seem to be fighting what Richard has accepted. For better or worse, they all seem to be stuck; trying desperately to keep the torch of youth lit.

The Big Chill starts with Harold (Kline) and Sarah Cooper (Close) preparing for bed in their idyllic South Carolina home. Sarah answers a phone call and is informed that their friend Alex killed himself in the bathtub of their vacation home. At the funeral, the couple's old University of Michigan friends reunite and decide to spend the weekend reminiscing. Among them is Sam (Berenger), a notable TV actor; Michael (Goldblum), a magazine journalist; Meg (Place), a single real estate attorney; Nick (Hurt), a war veteran with a cocaine addiction; Chloe (Tilly), Alex's much younger girlfriend and finally Karen (Williams) and Richard, an unhappily married couple. A lot has happened since the group had graduated and a lot can happen over the course of a weekend.

While thematically very different than director Lawrence Kasdan's freshman effort Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill does show a similar affinity to character over story structure and pat resolutions. All the friends are brought to life by a stellar ensemble cast of talented actors. Mind you, there are no showy performances that demand Academy attention (though Glenn Close was nominated for Best Supporting Actress). Each player does their part to populate a delicate and bittersweet nostalgia trip that drifts like a raft down a rolling river. These are people you know, or at the very least, still images of who those people you know, used to be.

Beneath the grieving, the sexual tension, the retrospect and the admittedly catchy jukebox soundtrack there's a deep sense of existential ennui that dominates the frame like a heavy fog. Today audiences will likely appreciate the characterizations but audiences at the time knew very well that these distinctive personalities are not just lamenting the death of their friend but the spirit of the 60's. Let's not forget that their alma mater was a counter-cultural Mecca that hosted the writers of the Port Huron Statement, the entourage of John Sinclair and free Sunday concerts at West Park. As time passed the hippies of the 60's became the yuppies of the 80's with the characters of The Big Chill are at once reminded that they bought in and the never seen Alex checked out.

All that said however, The Big Chill for all it's understated emotion still collects the mephitis of popular American nostalgia. It's the kind of nostalgia that can simultaneously give Norman Rockwell paintings their cumulative heft yet give the most troublesome spots of Forrest Gump (1994) their chintzy glibness. You can't help but think by the time the credits roll, the characters have settled comfortably back into lives of quiet desperation yet self-congratulating themselves for "maturing". Only Nick seems to be bending in anyway towards the dulling flicker of dying idealism. But instead of the bitterness that was honestly realized in Return of the Secaucus 7 (1979) we get the upbeat vibes of "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog".

Return of the Secaucus 7 (1979)

All-in-all, The Big Chill is a decent film with fully realized characters worth following for an hour or two. While watching I wondered what would be my generation's Woodstock? Do we have any political organizations that explode with the controversial fervor of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) or any musical idols that compare to Bob Dylan or Jimi Hendrix? Will our desire to create a more just and verdant world be fully realized or will we fall inattentive, indignant and distracted by new shoes and a few fond memories.

Final Grade: C