Dead of Winter is an action thriller starring Emma Thompson and you have to hand it to her. Has such a thoroughly ordinary, sixty-something-year-old woman (no superpowers) ever carried an action thriller before? Not that I can think of.
That’s not to say it’s devoid of clichés. I think we all know that it’s best to steer clear of cabins miles from anywhere. But it’s well made, tense, fun, and if you’ve longed to see an ordinary, sixty-something-year-old woman brandish a gun or put a claw hammer through someone’s foot you will not be disappointed.
Directed by Brian Kirk, from a script by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb, it’s set within the vast, wintery landscape of Minnesota (though actually filmed in Finland). Thompson plays Barb, a resourceful, determined, boiler-suited woman who would usually be played by Frances McDormand. Barb is recently bereaved and is driving to a far-off frozen lake to scatter her beloved husband’s ashes. It’s where they went ice-fishing on their first date. (If he’d taken her to the cinema, like a normal person, so much trouble might have been avoided.)
Barb gets lost and stops at our cabin miles from anywhere to ask directions from a gruff, dirty-bearded fella (Marc Menchaca), who doesn’t seem pleased to have a visitor. She notes blood on the snow. ‘Deer,’ he explains. Once at the lake Barb has flashbacks to the happy and fulfilling life she shared with her husband, Karl. (Young Barb is played by Thompson’s daughter, Gaia Wise, while young Carl is played by Cuan Hosty-Blaney.) Her peace is interrupted, however, when she spots the gruff fella again. This time he is shooting a gun while chasing a teenage girl across the ice. Barb returns to the lonely cabin (oh, Barb), where, through a window, she sees the girl being held prisoner in the basement. She calls for help and soon the police helicopters arrive. Only kidding. You and I have seen enough of these films to know that when Barb picks up her phone there will be no service.
There are some surprises. For instance, it turns out that the fella isn’t the villain of the piece. The villain is his wife (Judy Greer), to whom he seems entirely in thrall. She is desperate, somehow sick (she keeps bleeding from her mouth; I knew it wasn’t a deer), is addicted to fentanyl lollipops, always has a rifle ready and will kill rather than let the girl go. Her purpose becomes clear eventually but this isn’t ever a fully developed character. Her purpose, as far as the audience is concerned, is to go after Barb relentlessly. Barb, meanwhile, is dogged. She will rescue this girl. If it means putting a hammer through someone’s foot, say, or having to sew up her own wounds with fishing tackle, so be it.
While the film is often preposterous – the ending is certainly preposterous – and the flashbacks are sentimental and distracting, Thompson at least is convincing. And she does not shrink from the physical demands of the character; she spent a month training in Finland so she could actually plunge into the frozen lakes. Neither does she shrink from the emotional demands of the film. On her face we can read all of Barb’s fear, pain, grief and absolute resolve. We understand she has had a good life and, whatever the cost, she will make sure this girl gets the opportunity to lead one too. Liam Neeson and Tom Cruise had better watch out.
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