‘Amazing tradition. They throw a great party for you on the one day they know you can’t come…’
In Stand by Me, Stephen King says something about how nobody ever has friends again like they did when they were 12, and while that is true to an extent, this can also be applied to a person’s late adolescence and early 20s. There are people I used to drink with 15 years ago that I never see anymore but still feel an innate bond with. Some experiences are so uniquely formative that they can cause a group of people to become intrinsically linked from that point forward. The Big Chill explores this dynamic and does so beautifully…
Following the death of their beloved mutual friend, Alex, a group of old college buddies reunite for a weekend of drinking, philosophising and grieving. That’s it. That’s the plot. But check this cast out: Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline and Meg Tilly. Incredible.
Despite predating the ’90s slacker boom by a decade, The Big Chill feels like what happens when the characters from Dazed and Confused, Chasing Amy and, indeed, Slacker, finally grew up. Maybe that’s because this transition is both universal and timeless. All that passion, all the ideology… it fades away when you get older. Replaced by a humdrum monotony of a life without risk. The Big Chill perfectly captures what happens when a group of kids who came of age in the swinging sixties have to adapt to the cold materialism of the ’80s. But really, the decades don’t matter. We all have to confront this dichotomy eventually. No matter how many film reviews you write, or whatever else you do to try and keep the inner child alive, it comes for all of us.
Lawrence Kasdan, directing from a screenplay co-written by himself and Barbara Benedek, really has something to say here, but this is not a didactic film; rather, it’s a slice-of-life tableau of the horrors of leaving your youth behind. It moved me in ways that I actually found uncomfortable at times. Navel-gazing aside, however, this is a film with an absolutely incredible soundtrack, loads of memorable scenes and performances and a knock-out script. I can’t believe I had never seen it before but I’m glad that I waited until being on the cusp of turning 40 before doing so – the kind of film that changes your worldview.
