Casting actors against type is always a risky move. For every brilliant ‘Robin Williams in One Hour Photo' there's an uncomfortable ‘Vince Vaughn in Psycho'. Emma Thompson is best known as a gentle British actor typically appearing in rom-coms and dramas. Brilliant yes, but not an action star. Dead Of Winter, previously known as ‘The Fisherwoman', has Emma Thompson finding her inner Liam Neeson when she is the only option for the salvation of a kidnapped girl.
Salvation is a bit of a theme here, Judy Greer (also cast against type) and her husband (Marc Menchaca) have kidnapped a girl, Leah (Laurel Marsden) and taken her to a remote lakeside cabin in northern Minnesota. The reasoning is purposefully vague, but it's apparent that Greer's character is unwell and needs something from the girl to recover. Assuming that one life is worth more than another, she is going to take it.
Thompson's Barb is travelling to the lake to mark her husband's death, but, struggling to find it, stumbles across Menchaca and asks for directions. Spotting a smear of blood on the ground, she decides to look around and spots Leah chained to a post in the basement. Barb promises not to leave Leah, and quickly becomes an inconvenient complication for the two kidnappers. Greer is sadly unconvincing as a murderous kidnapper, though her desperation is clear. Menchaca is better as a hapless, weak-willed puppet, allocated the job of muscle but with little inclination or ability to follow through on it. Emma Thompson is surprisingly effective as the brave but unlikely Barb.
Comparisons may be drawn to Fargo, given the prevelance of Minnesotan accents and use of brains over brawn, alongside the film's snowy backdrop. Yet there is unfortunately little of Fargo‘s originality, and Dead Of Winter, while competent, is a relatively generic thriller. Director Brian Kirk clearly knows what to do with these limitations though, and there is little fat that could be trimmed from the tight 97 minute runtime. He uses flashbacks intricately to explain Barb's involvement. Her life with her husband, their early dates, their tragedies and her recent grief, are interspersed with the primary plot in a way that develops her character beautifully, explaining her actions and choices as the conflict escalates.
Dead of Winter embraces its strengths, with Thompson's against-type performance elevating it enough to suggest that the Academy-Award winner still has much more to offer.
Dead Of Winter is released in UK Cinemas on the 26th of September.
