A surprising Oscar’s BEST PICTURE nominee, writer/director Lawrence Kasdan’s sophomore feature THE BIG CHILL focuses on a weekend reunion of seven 30-something alumni of the University of Michigan, 15 years after leaving the ivory tower, but what convenes them together is anything but jovial, their friend Alex’s shocking suicide.

The overhanging question shrouds the cohort of eight, joined by Chloe, Alex’s much younger girlfriend, is what is the reason behind Alex’s given up on his life, but like Alex himself, whom we are not privileged to see in his physical form (Kevin Costner is cast as Alex but all his scenes with his facial appearance are left in the editing room), it is elusive and open-ended, it might be just as well a spur-of-the-moment decision out of depression. In lieu of solving the mystery, Kasdan takes in his stride to examine the sophisticated interrelations among our subjects, who begin to introspect their own feelings in the aftermath through gingerly disposed small talks and congenial interactions infrequently salted with discord and liaisons.

Pivoted around a ballast of camaraderie, nothing egregiously dark will emerge to tickle a cynical mind, Sarah (a radiant and Oscar-nominated Glenn Close in the mode of a good wife/mother which in retrospect appears at a premium in her tracking record) admits that she had an affair with Alex, which unfortunately dampens their friendship, before marrying Harold (Kevin Kline, full of panache), the ultimate version of an understanding and competent husband, who has no qualms at the bidding of her wife to become an inseminator of Meg (Mary Kay Place, embodies the career woman stereotype with considerable pizzazz and tizzy), who adopts a modern view of independence and plans to become a single mother of her own accord when the biological clock starts ticking.

As per the likability quotient of their characters, in the descending order, the next-in-line is Karen (JoBeth Williams, a fine performance), a housewife forgoes her writing dreams to raise her children and gets bored with her stagnant marriage, the reunion tantalizingly rekindles her romance with her old admirer Sam (Tom Berenger, emits a refreshing air of forthright amiability and attractive unassumingness before being typecast in the villain compartment, for keeps), a well-known TV actor in L.A., divorced but sagacious enough not to wreck a family just for the old time’s sake (after a mutually desired consummation, of course). Then the only new blood, Chloe (a lissom Meg Tilly channeling a less convincing orbit wobbling between a barmy nymphet and a post-traumatic soul), takes a liking to Nick (William Hurt, tangibly tackling the most complex character here with searing precision), a Porsche-riding, pill-popping Vietnam veteran who has no place called home and stigmatized by impotence, whose defeatist outlook cuts through the sweeping but bland melancholia like a scalpel, before receding to its residing harbor in the well-intentioned but anodyne ending. Finally, Michael (a jaunty Jeff Goldblum) is a People Magazine’s writer who seeks both a new career opportunity and some carnal dalliance, falls between those two stools at length, nevertheless his can-do spirit is always in full swing to bring exuberance.

A cracking ensemble piece punctuated by a potpourri of hit parade ear-worms, THE BIG CHILL enthralls viewers with its fabricated spontaneity, palpable warmth and liberating candor, yet as a matter of fact, there is a discerning aftertaste apropos of the elephant-in-the-room: “Who is this enigmatic, gone but not forgotten Alex and what drives him to his undoing?”, after all, is it a tactful circumvention as an enigma is better left in lacunae or a flagrant glossing-over in favor of something less perturbing? The jury is out, seemly.

referential point: Kasdan’s BODY HEAT (1981, 7.9/10)

人很奇怪。

接近30的时候会感觉老的很快，热情没了，体力没了，什么兴趣都没了。


过了30倒放松心态，以前向往的东西既然都没实现，不如从零开始，能做什么就做什么，尽量做好，尽自己能力做好，做到什么程度算什么程度。

所以大寒这样的电影，还真得40岁以后再看比较合适，至少在过个5年吧。

那时候再回头看，也许感慨多一些。

IMDB上有很好的简评，转过来。

The Mourning of the Hippie and The Birth of the Yuppie, 27 November 2004

Author: bondgirl6781 from Florida, USA

In 1983 the Yuppie era was its rise: people became more and more focused and obsessed with being successful and making money. These are the same people who once protested in the 1960s and were once against conformity and dreamed sweet ideals of they wanted in life. The Big Chill is a film that mourns the hippie era and it is also the beginnings and the rise of the yuppie era. The film tells the story of a group of college friends from the late sixties who are reunited at the funeral of a best friend named Alex (the role of the stiff was Kevin Costner until his scenes were taken out of the film) who committed suicide. The friends had all lost touch on and off in the years with the exception of Alex. They have all found their successes in life: Sarah (played by Glenn Close) is a doctor and she once had an affair with Alex. Harold (Kevin Kline) is a businessman and married to Sarah and very secure with the direction his life took. Michael (Jeff Goldblum) is a journalist and investing on starting a nightclub. Sam (Tom Berenger) is a popular TV star in a Magnum PI-ish television show and has always been attracted to Karen (JoBeth Williams) who had once aspired to become a writer until she married a rich man and settled as a country club housewife. Then there is Nick (William Hurt) a former Vietnam vet who chose to become a drug dealer rather than pursue his doctorate in psychology. Meg (Mary Kay Place) is a successful lawyer who has decided that she wants to have a baby. And finally entering their circle is Alex's spaced out and naive-like girlfriend Chloe (Meg Tilly). All meet in the wake of his dead and they all spend the weekend together evaluating their lives and why their dear friend Alex died. We begin to know each of the characters through subtle scenes and dialogue without flashbacks or even any explanations. We begin to see why Alex died and it was not because he lost touch with his friends and because he was lonely, but because of the direction that his life took. It turns out that Alex was brilliant and was offered a fellowship to study as a physicists in a prestigious institution but chose to become a social worker. Each of his friends begin to questions the choices they had made and begin to wonder if they made the right choice. Excellent writing and terrific performances from the actors. Touching, funny, sad, and poignant film Lawrence Kasdan style.