The Reel Review
Barb, a grief-stricken widow traveling alone through northern Minnesota to go ice fishing and scatter her late husband’s ashes, finds herself in a fight for her life after she stumbles upon a kidnapped girl being held prisoner at a remote cabin. Without cell service and hours away from the nearest town, it is up to her to save the two of them. Emma Thompson, Judy Greer and Marc Menchaca star in this crime thriller.
Sporting a gosh darn convincing Minnesota accent and set to an appropriately bleak, snowy backdrop, Thompson, as expected, carries the film as the woefully unprepared (a two-wheel drive truck with no snow chains?) but still impressively resourceful heroine clever enough to make do with the limited resources at her disposal. The thriller does have its fair share of pacing issues, as the action is routinely disrupted with flashbacks to Barb’s earlier, happier life – obvious padding for the otherwise threadbare story. There are also a few moments (most obviously, Barb leaving a glove on the ground and a message on the basement window) that frankly push the bounds of believability given Barb’s otherwise resourceful nature.
Greer and Menchaca (Ozark, Alone) are convincing enough as the criminal duo, the former sucking on fentanyl syringes to stave off withdrawal symptoms from her opioid addiction, but the big third act reveal by director Brian Kirk (21 Bridges) as to the motive for the kidnapping is pretty bonkers, followed by a real bummer of an ending. Thompson salvages what easily could have been a dud, but it still is pretty mediocre.
REEL FACTS
• Young Barb is played by Emma Thompson’s daughter, Gaia Wise.
• Sharon Stone was originally set to star in the film.
• Although set in northern Minnesota, Dead of Winter was filmed in Finland.
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