(11/23/2002) Now that my horrible, horrible pun has gotten your attention, I will dispense with all terrible wordplay henceforth.
"The Big Chill" is very funny, with excellent casting and wonderful writing. To this day, no screenwriter has so clearly etched an ensemble of characters as Lawrence Kasdan & Barbara Benedek did for this movie.

It may be surprising to some people that a Gen Y-er is speaking so well of "The Big Chill." Sure, the movie has plenty of faults: how the characters often have the perfect one-liner for every given situation; the way the writers seem to think that the essence of the ever-complicated 60s can be recreated so simply by having the characters smoke lots of pot and listen to Motown; the way that these people, who have supposedly been so hardened by their materialism and life experiences, are effortlessy self-aware. And those are just the ones I can think of off-hand.

But still, I think that most people don't dislike "The Big Chill" because of those flaws I just mentioned. I think most people hate it because it's simply in fashion to dislike "The Big Chill". From "High Fidelity" to various other movies, screenwriters have gotten comedic mileage out of disparaging the movie. I guess I must be nuts because unlike my MTV-saturated brethren, I like to judge things for myself.

Not being a baby boomer myself, I missed whatever cultural significance this movie had for that group in the 80s. However, it's a pleasant diversion in its own right, even without the generational statement. Funny and touching without being maudlin, "The Big Chill" is good enough for me to drop a few bucks on.

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Created May 05, 2009 at 11:32pm • Submit your own review...