Sure, some of Frozen may invoke the classic suspension of disbelief for the setup, but the rest of the film is as real and nerve-racking as a movie can get. What starts as a fun day on the slopes becomes a dangerous situation as three friends are stranded on a chairlift halfway up a mountain. Initially they sit thinking that the interruption was just a fluke or power outage but as more time passes they come to the conclusion that they are stranded fifty feet in the air until the resort opens the following weekend.
As over two-thirds of the film showcase only three people (or less at times), the main fault of the film could very well have been the characters. Fortunately, this is not the case as the principal actors involved are phenomenal. I rarely use such verbiage but I cannot think of a better adjective here. The relationship between best friends Dan (Kevin Zegers) and Lynch (Shawn Ashmore) feels playful and genuine, even during the serious moments at the beginning as Lynch complains about Dan ditching him and his buddies for girlfriend Parker and the even more serious down the line as the trio is stuck in midair.
When the shit hits the fan though, it is Emma Bell as Parker who really shines. She convincingly pulls off the happy-go-lucky girl at the beginning, using sex appeal and her flirtatiousness to score an unpaid lift ticket all the way to the wrecked and distraught survivor on the chair. As the obvious female of the group, she has the more emotional scenes (not to mention some of the more gross aspects) but she delivers in some of the most emotional monologues ever put to film. Ashmore is no slouch though as his role requires a complete reversal for his character arc to proceed from a self-involved ass to the hero more or less of the film.
The thing that is refreshing about Frozen though is that there are not really heroes and villains in the traditional sense. Sure, you can consider a pack of wolves or frostbite the real enemies but really there is no fault and no one to blame for what happens in the movie, there is just bad luck. Writer/director Adam Green has crafted a movie devoid of the asininity of contrived drama or artificial threats. What remains is reality when three very different people are stuck in an impossible situation where they are outnumbered by the forces of nature that could mean their demise. While some have cried foul over the characters’ decisions and actions here, any sensible person can see the fear and panic behind the eyes of the three characters and believe in everything they do as something you would do yourself in such a situation.
While you would imagine a movie based in a stationary chair, suspended above a frozen mountain would be boring, this cannot be further from the truth. There is always something going on, whether it is an action to free themselves from their frozen tomb or just causal conversation to ward off the fear of being frozen alive. Regardless of what is going on, you cannot help but be engaged as Green, Bell, Zegers, and Ashmore make a mountain out of an almost certain deathtrap with some of the most excruciating character moments ever along the way.
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