The Big Chill Movie Review

The Big Chill (1983)

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Written by: Lawrence Kasdan & Barbara Benedek
Directed by: Lawrence Kasdan
Starring: Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams, Don Galloway
Rated: R
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Plot
A group of seven former college friends gather for a weekend reunion at a South Carolina vacation home after the funeral of another of their college friends.

Verdict
It's a movie without a plot as old classmates hang out. There's a lot happening between the lines. These are the kids of the 60s that had lofty ambitions and now we see what they have and haven't accomplished. There's certainly shrewd insight at times about life and friendship, but it was never an engrossing movie. Maybe the point is that it's a microcosm of life, complicated and messy, full of broken dreams. That makes for a great movie to study in class, but not something I'm going to watch again for fun, though the soundtrack is awesome.
It depends.

Review
Everyone gathers for a the funeral of a friend, Alex. They all went to college together, but they've fallen out of touch. This event brings them together. This cast is stacked.

From the start, this is a movie focused on details. We see the cracked turns signal of a car and what people pack which provides insight. 

Glenn Close, JoBeth Williams, William Hurt, Meg Tilly, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, Mary Kay Place, Kevin Kline play Sarah, Karen, Nick, Chloe, Michael, Sam, Meg, Harold

This is a heavy dose of nostalgia while also hanging out with friends. They catch up, going over various success and failures, but the death of their friend hangs over every conversation. They wonder why. Despite their speculations, they can't comprehend it.  The relationships are messy and complicated. It can be difficult to keep track of everyone and the overlaps.

I surmise this is a movie that relies on what you bring to it. I'm a couple generations behind to really grasp the generational ideals. The movie weighs the optimism of their youth against what they've accomplished. They had big plans, and that hasn't worked out for them. They wanted to change the future, but despite their successes the world remains intact.

Kevin Kline, JoBeth Williams, Jeff Goldblum play Harold, Karen, Michael

Their dreams never came together, and that's a parallel with their friend. What went wrong? Alex is the embodiment of something wrong. They wonder what happened to Alex, and they also wonder why their aspirations never came to fruition. They grew apart and lost touch. If they had stuck together would it have been different? They joke about not leaving at the end, is that a joke that speaks to the underlying feeling?

While Alex is never shown as his scenes were cut, Kevin Costner played the character. He appeared at the end of the movie in a flashback. In test screenings audiences felt that no one could live up to the character the movie had created.