‘Dead of winter’ review

By Nadia Dalimonte

Emma Thompson in Dead of Winter

If the idea of Emma Thompson channeling Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson from Fargo sounds intriguing, the action thriller Dead of Winter will satisfy your curiosity. Thompson, one of our greatest acting treasures, plays a badass lone traveller who fights against harsh elements to save a life. Slipping into character and embracing the setting, she echoes McDormand’s “Oh yah?” through an endearing “Oh all heck,” complete with the Minnesota accent and all. Thompson’s wit and authenticity bring warm layers to an icy survival thriller that stumbles through cliches, but reaches a surprisingly heartfelt ending. In between tidying up violent messes, Barb reminisces about love and loss, acting as the film’s memorable core.

Set in a snow capped northern Minnesota, Dead of Winter follows a widow named Barb (Thompson), as she travels to her favourite lake for an ice fishing trip. This lake, a gem of the natural world, holds a special place in her heart; she had spent a lot of time there with her late husband, Karl (Paul Hamilton). While en route, Barb gets lost among the backroads and stumbles upon a remote cabin in the woods. She asks an incognito man for help. He begrudgingly gives out directions, while she catches a blood-splattered patch of snow in the corner of her eye. Barb continues on her journey and reaches the lake, but the audience quickly gets wind that trouble is afoot. It’s just a matter of when the danger will strike, and director Brian Kirk wastes no time getting the bloody snowball rolling. 
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While on the icy lake, Barb witnesses a teenage girl named Leah (Laurel Marsden) running for her life from a gun-wielding kidnapper nicknamed Camo Jacket (Marc Menchaca). Isolated and without cell service, Barb draws on instinct and resilience, realizing that she is the girl’s only hope for survival. After rushing back to the cabin, Barb discovers a new threat — the kidnapper’s wife nicknamed Purple Lady (an excellent Judy Greer), is the mastermind. Greer’s character is a former medical worker who is desperate to have a surgical procedure done, and plans on using Leah as her patient. Armed and murderous, Purple Lady goes on a relentless hunt to eliminate her new target: Barb.

If these nicknames elicit some chuckles, there’s a bit more humour where that came from. First-time screenwriters Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb find darkly comic veins in a tensely wrapped high-stress environment. Whether it’s Barb cracking jokes to herself while sewing up a gunshot wound, or Purple Lady (Greer) and Camo Jacket (Menchaca) veering towards a comedy of errors with their clumsiness, Dead of Winter plays lighter than expected. It certainly breathes glimmers of personality into the film’s generic plot and pedestrian direction. But the humour ultimately becomes more of a hindrance than a gift. It often clashes with the dramatic elements, creating an odd mishmash of tones and undermining tense standoffs between characters.

The film attempts to balance the kidnapping plot with a character study of Barb. Flashbacks to young Barb (played by Thompson’s real-life daughter, Gaia Wise) and young Karl (Cúan Hosty-Blaney) paint a sweet portrait of a blossoming romance. The flashbacks add context for Barb’s everlasting love, making her journey all the more poignant. Her interiority is far more compelling than the cold-hearted patch of violence she runs into, though Greer injects stirring intensity and genuine intimidation into the picture. But the film plays to the melody of Thompson’s screen presence, through and through.

Thompson’s emotionality as a performer is a major source of comfort for the audience. She devotes as much attention to the physicality of her character as she does the essence. The end result is a nuanced, assured portrayal of a woman whose intentions are crystal clear, and whose open heart travels beyond fear and directly into the eye of conflict. However difficult it is for her to fight against harsh elements and murderous plots, she doesn’t quit. It’s refreshing to also consider that Barb is not portrayed as miraculously invincible. She stumbles and panics her way through, which helps to ground her character’s scenarios.

While Thompson has a strong grasp on Barb, Dead of Winter as a whole feels half-realized. The character study, the kidnapping of Leah, and the medical motivations behind Purple Lady’s actions fall short of a thrilling blend. But at the very least, the film finds strength in the motto Barb lives by: we don’t quit. However underwhelming the plot devices and uneven the tone, the story builds onto real stakes for the character. In this chilly, choppy action piece, Barb is given a surprising and memorable ending, made all the more impactful by one of our greatest performers.