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 Emma Bell, co-star of Frozen. |
Most popsicles have more layers than the characters in Frozen.
Essentially Open Water for skiers, it takes the slightest of “what ifs” — three college students are stranded on a chairlift with no way down — and strains to manufacture a full-length thriller out of it.
Do they jump? Can they scale over to another lift where there’s a ladder? Can they signal for help? Will they last long enough until someone arrives?
All compelling questions, granted. Too bad the answers are anemic and uneven (particularly when the trio is circled from below by a pack of blood-thirsty wolves).
Writer-director Adam Green deserves props for filmmaking ingenuity — Frozen is convincing from a technical point of view, if not an emotional one — but a few grisly moments can’t compensate for the story’s overall lack of traction and depth.
Life-long pals Dan (Kevin Zegers) and Joe (Shawn Ashmore) are on a ski and snowboarding trip in New England when they decide to take one final run before a bout of bad weather hits. Along for the ride is Parker (Emma Bell), Dan’s girlfriend and a source of unintentional tension between the two old buddies.
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But when the trio is mistakenly forgotten about by the resort operators, the lift lurches to a halt. Faced with the realization it could be days before they’re found — likely frozen to death — they have to fend off fear, hunger, frostbite and vertigo to survive. They also chatter, shiver, bicker and tell stories. Green obviously wants these people to be as average as possible, but in striving for normalcy, he’s only succeeded at making them routine.
The same is true of the film itself, despite the odd gory diversion. For all its scenes of peeling bloody skin, Frozen never feels fleshed out.
Stars: Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell
Directed by: Adam Green
Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes
kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca