Glenn Close received her second Oscar nomination for her performance as Sarah Cooper in The Big Chill.
The Big Chill is an excellent movie about a group of former college friends who spend a weekend together after the suicide of one of them. It's a movie I already liked the first time I watched it, but I flat out loved it on a rewatch: it's a brilliant movie bolstered by a first-rate screenplay that is equally hilarious and thoughtful. It's a movie that conveys the nostalgic, sad feeling of its character but that at the same time captures the beauty of life and friendship. The whole cast is very good with William Hurt being the standout.
Glenn Close plays Sarah Cooper, one of the friends: she is the one who, along with her husband Harold (Kevin Kline), hosts the friends at her house over the weekend. The first time I saw the movie I thought that Glenn Close was easily the weak link of the cast: I found her performance to be surprisingly disappointing and shallow - I never thought that she dug deep into the character's pain and I thought she had a strangely pale screen-presence that made her disappear completely next to the other cast members. After a rewatch, I now feel differently about her performance: I still don't think she gives the best performance of the cast (I think William Hurt, Meg Tilly and Tom Berenger were better) but I've grown to appreciate more the small subtleties and nuances she brings to the role. She never stands out, but she is part of what makes the ensemble of this movie so great and makes Sarah one of the most interesting characters of the movie. She really feels like part of the group and she creates a beautiful dynamic with all of the other cast members.
In the first scenes of the movie, that takes place at the funeral and shortly after, Sarah seems to be the only character to be in control of her emotions - all of the other characters are visibly upset and incapable of holding their emotions: Sarah, despite silently crying while her husband talks about the deceased Alex, seems to be the anchor of the group, the one who can pull herself together and be kind and smiley towards everyone. Close, though, manages to show that there is definitely something off about Sarah and she manages to make you see the inner turmoil behind Sarah's gentle demeanor: we get a first glimpse of Sarah's desperation when we see her crying alone in the shower - it's a small moment that lasts a bunch of seconds but it's in this small moment of intense desperation that Close finds the core of the character and suggests Sarah's past which is only explained later on. It is later revealed that Sarah and Alex had a brief affair five years prior: even if it hadn't being directly explained, you can read it all through Close's and Kline's performances. Both actors are excellent in conveying the history between these two people and establish perfectly their relationship: there is not passion nor fire in their scenes together but there is a great amount of sincerity, affection and tenderness - on her part, Close is particularly effective in suggesting that Sarah's affair with Alex was more passionate but that she is ultimately more happy with Harold. Some of her best moments are the ones that involve Sarah dealing with her conflicted feelings and memories towards Alex: the moment in which Jeff Goldblum's character mentions the fact that she has found the perfect husband in Harold and Sarah's face, as she briefly thinks of her affair with Alex, freezes is a brilliant moment made unforgettable by Close's fantastic acting. She also excels in the scene in which she tearfully talks about Alex during dinner but I like her even more in the beautifully quiet scene on the porch, in which she reflects about how her affair with Alex affected their friendship later on. It's a sincere, touching moment that Close plays with welcome quietness and with a heartbreaking touch of regret.
Towards the end of the movie, Close becomes the center of a storyline with Mary Kay Place, who plays Meg, one of the friends who wants to have sex with one of the guys at the house in order to get pregnant and have a baby. It's a rather challenging storyline as it easily could have been unbelievable, even ridiculous, but Mary Kay Place and especially Glenn Close manage to make it work. Sarah decides to let Meg have sex with her husband, and while her choice might be questionable Close manages to make it understandable, as if through this act of selflessness she could alleviate her guilt for having betrayed her husband. I love the scene in which Sarah sees Meg and Harold talking and she starts to contemplate the idea of asking Harold to have sex with her - with her growing smile Close manages to make the viewer read all of her thoughts on her face.
In the end, Glenn Close might not give an amazing performance in this movie but it's a completely solid, memorable piece of work that is part of what makes The Big Chill the ultimate ensemble movie. She portrays her character's feelings with delicacy and subtlety and it's a performance that I like the more I think about it.
4/5
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