The Big Chill
1983 Directed by Lawrence Kasdan
Synopsis
Kevin Kline and Glenn Close star as Harold and Sarah Cooper, a couple whose marital troubles are put on hold while they host an unhappy reunion of former college pals gathered for the funeral of one of their own, a suicide victim named Alex. As the weekend unfolds, the friends catch up with each other, play the music of their youth, reminisce, smoke marijuana, and pair off with each other.
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The older I get, the more I love The Big Chill. I first saw it when I was much younger and my love for character-interaction films carried me through so that the overall experience was wonderful.
But now, with each passing year, I find I can relate more and more to what these people are going through. I've put more friends in the ground. I've had more idealism shattered. I've looked back longingly at the promise of being young. I've missed my youth.
The soundtrack propels this movie forward in such a powerful way that it's one of the few soundtracks I've ever purchased and listened to over and over. It also tells you when these people feel they hit…
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Great chemistry and a killer soundtrack!
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Berenger before he made straight to video shockers. Awesome cast directed with gusto by a talented director. All the actors get the room and dialogue they deserve to bring us a rewarding and engaging film full of emotion. William Hurt has rarely been better and the kookiness of Meg Tilly was a revelation. She should definitely have made more movies.
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Great chemistry and a killer soundtrack!
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It's a well made movie but it's only really related toward a certain generation that I'm not a part of.
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Enorme película. Sueños rotos, decisiones erróneas y algún que otro pequeño éxito. Vamos, lo que suele pasar cuando te pones a pensar qué has hecho con tu vida. Casting perfecto y una banda sonora acojonante (Rolling Stones, los Creedence, Beach Boys, Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, etc).
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I usually like Lawrence Kasdan's writing, but in this case, I guess you just had to be there. Anyone who didn't grow up (i.e., go to college) in the 70s is probably going to miss out on whatever greatness there is here. Sure, it's a great "we're getting older" story (and I'm starting to feel that myself), but it's for a certain audience that I just don't fall into. I guess the closest thing I have so far is "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion." :P
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I know I saw it, and I know I was too young to really get it at the time... but for some reason I just don't feel like I need to give it another watching.
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"Great film with a wonderful soundtrack. I'm old enough to really like the idea of reunions with old friends."
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It's all very entertaining - these actors spawned a billion copycat riffs on this formula - but mostly, the message of guilt and regret over quashing idealism with success made me feel sad. It seems poised to date everything about itself but the ideas, making it seem almost duplicitous and suspicious. (Of course, the "dating", as I call it, is twofold: It's dated because it clearly and unequivocally takes place in the 1980s, but it's also probably dated to a certain generation - be it a universal one, or a more specific one - and doesn't allow for the same connection with those outside its range.)
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Why I love this movie so much I'll never know, but Glenn Close and Kevin Klein tickle me pink every time.
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Back in 1983 Lawrence Kasdan was a really exciting person in American film, he had just directed the great Body Heat and written both Empire and Raiders; and The Big Chill definitely put him on the map as a major player. It is a good film, a little bit too drenched in nostalgia, with its great 1960s soul soundtrack being the best aspect of this nostalgia, however the weakest being the dripping sentimentality. The film has some good performances from Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt - a cast almost worthy of a Woody Allen film of the same era, a major influence I suspect. A good film, pity it is not a great film.