Frozen

I just returned from seeing this film in Lancaster. Hearing about a locally shot film, I expected not much more than a mini-DV cheapie. However this film is far removed from that.

Kath is a young woman (33) whose sister Annie disappeared two years ago without a trance. Kath rather obsessively hunts around for information to try and work out what happened. The centre of her focus is CCTV footage of her sister, that seems to suggest that something odd happened.

Shot entirely in the Lancaster/Morecambe/Fleetwood region, in the North West of the UK, the film has very powerful visuals, the scenes shot on the bay itself have an amazing dream-like quality almost Herzog-like. The direction is never pedestrian, always adding to scenes.

Shirley Henderson is superb as Kath, who is just by rights, a typical northern girl and comes across very well as such. The supporting cast is all solid.

The script is simply superb, with an ever changing story line, and some very interesting sub-plots, that add a lot of detail to the characters and remind you that nothing ever happens in isolation, there are always other things going on in their lives. Fortunately these do not pose any real pacing issues. The ending is solid.

A unique film, it is hard to determine who it would really be aimed at, certainly fans of Don't Look Now, and similar, would really enjoy this - on a larger scale, any fans of small scale, artistic cinema should get their money's worth.

In all, a very good film and certainly worth seeing if you get the chance. I am looking forward to a DVD release so I can watch it again.

This is Shirley Henderson's film through and through. If "Frozen" does nothing else it must surely let casting agents see that Henderson can be stretched further than we have ever seen before and that she will deliver the goods. Her performance has already been recognised in the BAFTA Scotland Awards in 2005 where she (rightly) picked up the Best Actress prize. This is the first time that she has carried a film as the star that she is. Here there are no places to hide since she is on screen in mostly every scene. With a flawless Lancashire dialect (she is Scottish) and a paper-thin fragility, she convinces us that she is trapped in this bleak but beautiful (and rarely filmed) place as she searches for the truth behind her sister's mysterious disappearance.

The film is slow though well paced, stark and bleak, but never dull, but would have been a whole lot better if the end wasn't so obfuscated and needlessly confusing. In a whodunit (and this is) you can't short change the audience by not telling them what happened. From what I can tell, about half the audience when I saw it really liked the film. Others were disappointed and without doubt this is not a commercial film by any standard, but it is one worth seeing just for Henderson's tour de force.

I have just finished watching this film on TV and I was totally absorbed. The casting was perfect, the coastal locations bleak but with a strange beauty as only our coasts have, and the story itself is haunting. This beautifully crafted film, reminiscent of Nick Roeg's adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's 'Don't Look Now', is a credit to the British Film industry. It just goes to prove that you don't need mega amounts of money and 'A list' Hollywood stars to make an thoughtful and very watchable film. In particular, I thought Shirley Henderson as Kath Swarbrick and Roshan Seth as Noyen Roy, were both superb and brought sensitivity to their roles which was both understated and convincing. The direction by Juliet McKoen and screenplay by her and Jayne Steel were, I thought, pretty much faultless. Some viewers have complained about the slow pace - unfortunately now-days the art and skill of building tension or atmosphere gradually is in danger of being lost in favour of crashing out everything at breakneck speed. I loved this film - if you're considering buying it on DVD, 10% of the proceeds goes towards the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.

I recently saw 'Frozen' at the 2005 RiverRun International Film Festival, and I must say I enjoyed it. However, I don't think it's a film you'll watch over and over again... explanation: The basic synopsis of 'Frozen' is a girl, Kath, is curious about what happened to her sister, Annie. Is she alive? Dead? Living a new life? When Kath finds some evidence showing Annie the day she went missing, she becomes almost obsessed with finding her. It's not the most original plot you've ever heard of, but it is pulled off very well for what it is.

Along Kath's "journey," you'll meet a few central characters, though after all is said and done, I find some of the characters --or more importantly, the one emphasized most (a therapist/priest character)-- has little to no real relation or development to the plot and could've been done without or built upon in many areas. Though the acting is convincing throughout, it's because of this that some of the exchanges can feel as if they're unnatural or dragging (even at a 90min. runtime.) What the previously mentioned slacks on, 'Frozen' more than makes up for with visuals and sound. The film uses lots of blues and dark greens, which give it a very cold feeling. This pulls you in to relate to the character, who describes herself multiple times as feeling "frozen." The camera work itself is good as well, with some very good shots scattered about. The sound is equally cold as the visuals. There's not much use of music here, which further helps with the feeling of isolation.

Overall, the movie is nothing amazing, but even considering the flaws, 'Frozen' is a very good and interesting watch in the thriller category (especially considering what's been passing as "thrillers" lately.)

Juliet McKeon's film 'Frozen' tells the story of a young woman searching for the truth about her disappeared sister, and has elements of the thriller, the supernatural, a tale of mental disintegration and, most convincingly, a portrait of Fleetwood (in Lancashire) as a place beyond the end of the world (think of Pavel Pawelikowski's interpretation of Margate in 'Last Resort', and then imagine somewhere even more bleak). But it's a low budget, low-key affair, and while I often consider these virtues, McKeon doesn't quite have the skill to put everything together, or the ability to lace her portrait of darkness with the dose of lightness and humanity necessary to make us care. The result is somewhat alienating for the viewer, and the final message unclear; it feels like a beginner's piece, and more reminiscent of a BBC television film from the 1980s than a conventional movie.