irector David Gordon Green is a master of making mundane human experiences seem extraordinary and finding poetry in simple moments and characters. In his early films, this meant that very little happened in a conventional sense. For the most part, Green just collected beautiful, simple scenes and jammed them together to form a narrative. As time’s gone on, Green has become more focused as a storyteller and tamed his episodic inclinations. Adapted from a novel by Stewart O’Nan, Snow Angels is the latest work from the writer/director and is easily the most linear movie that he’s ever created. While a movement towards conventionality is typically a bad sign for a filmmaker, with Green it simply seems to be a sign of maturation as an artist.Snow Angels may lack some of the inventive free-spiritedness of his debut George Washington, but the slow building movie has a culminative power that might just make it his finest achievement to date.

The story focuses on two seemingly disparate families in a small town, whose lives are connected in small but meaningful ways. The first is the wealthy Parkinson family who are splitting up as the result of the father’s (Griffin Dunne) affair. While his home life is falling apart, the only Parkinson child Arthur (Michael Angarano) also discovers a new girl (Olivia Thirlby) at school and experiences first love. Simultaneously, a single mother (Kate Beckinsale) struggles to support her young daughter and keep her alcoholic ex-husband (Sam Rockwell) at bay…all while carrying on an affair with her best friend’s husband (played by Amy Sedaris and Nicky Katt respectively). It’s the stuff of small town soap opera, but Green and the cast handle the material so delicately that the film surmounts any possibility of cheesiness or cliché. When missing children and murder come into play for the finale, it is a credit to everyone involved that the scenes not only feel organic to the movie, but are devastatingly tragic.

While it’s easy to credit much of the success of the Snow Angels to the talented director, it’s impossible to discuss the film without mentioning the spectacular cast. Sam Rockwell has the meatiest part as a struggling alcoholic born-again Christian (what a combo!) and the actor fearlessly commits to the role. Rockwell has made a career out of portraying eccentric characters and possibly delivers his most complex performance in this film. He disappears into the threatening and unpredictable aspects of the character with a disturbing abandon. But remarkably, even in the darkest moments, Rockwell manages to make the character sympathetic. Kate Beckinsale does an impressive job matching Sam as his character’s troubled wife. While it’s initially distracting to see the gorgeous starlet amongst a sea of very normal and realistic looking characters, Beckinsale shows surprising range in the role and proves to capable of much more as an actress than fighting monsters in slow motion.

Michael Angarano and Olivia Thirlby are also quite wonderful as a burgeoning teenage couple. The actors share genuine chemistry and their relationship is so carefully and incrementally developed that it feels completely authentic. While not cast in a main role, the typically slapstick comedienne Amy Sedaris deserves notice for her portrayal of a waitress whose husband commits adultery. Unsurprisingly, Sedaris is able to provide some much needed comic relief from the frequently dark subject matter, but she also proves to be quite a subtle and effective dramatic actress when given the opportunity. There’s really nothing negative to be said about the entire cast, who all deliver at least one stand-out scene, be it comic or dramatic.