C | An adaptation of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes, stranding them for 72 days. Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona Starring Enzo Vogrincic and Matias Recalt Review by Jon Kissel |
My favorite of these kinds of movies is The Martian, partly because it treats being stranded on Mars as a series of problems to be solved. This makes for a compelling viewing experience while serving a purpose for the characters’ sanity and focus. Society of the Snow doesn’t have that feeling at all. I left with little sense of how the survivors made it through, nor did their camaraderie emerge through their actions. Bayona would have to be an incompetent filmmaker for the rescue to not be successful, and he’s not that. The best scene in his film is the survivors showering each other, displaying the kind of earnest intimacy that can only be borne out of their shared experience. I just wish that moment didn’t come as a surprise, just like I also wish that the film took a half hour out of their stay in the Andes and used it on their having to defend themselves. Again, this is the film not wanting to frame this as anything other than a miracle, as opposed to a question about what the family of an eaten corpse might think about those who ate it. The lurid part of this story is how Bayona got it made. It might be so irresistible that someone else will make a better version in the future. C