★★½ (2½ out of 4)
Why is everything scarier in a snowstorm? That fact isn’t lost on the makers of “Dead of Winter,” now in theaters, where you can almost feel the icy terror. You can also feel the improbabilities of a plot that casts class-act Brit Emma Thompson as Barb, a Minnesota widow who runs a bait-and-tackle shop. Never figured her for that kind of job.
There’s blood in the snow and holes in the logic, and yet Emma Thompson puts on a hell of a show, doing stunts that would shame Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and building a character who’s ‘dangerous as all heck.’ There’s no resisting that.
Never figured Thompson, an Oscar winner for the Merchant-Ivory gentilities of “Howards End,” for playing her either, which is part of the fun. Barb is on a mission to scatter the ashes of her recently deceased husband near the lake cabin where they had their first date. Barb is not a wussy, so driving through the frozen tundra doesn’t scare her a bit. And Thompson exudes a confidence and self-sufficiency only a fool would mess with.
She is saddled with a singsong Minnesota accent foisted on any performer who must follow in the footsteps of the Sarge Marge character Frances McDormand played for the ages in “Fargo.” No worries. Thompson goes her own way, like you knew she would. You betcha.
Working from a script by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb, director Brian Kirk isn’t exactly averse to following the formula set down for a woman in jeopardy. Luckily, Thompson is steadfastly allergic to tropes about a damsel in distress.
Barb is no stranger to the ways of men. She’s not bitter, just prepared. After Barb asks directions of a creepy bearded dude (Marc Menchaca), she moves on to ice-fishing and her memories spark flashbacks to her younger self, gracefully played by Thompson’s own daughter Gaia Wise. But of course, Barb’s serenity is short-lived in this bleak midwinter thriller, filmed in Finland, by the way. I guess Minnesota was busy.
Barb gets busy fast when she discovers a young woman (Laurel Marsden) who’s been bound and gagged in a remote cabin basement. It’s Barb to the rescue, as she uncovers a sinister plot that involves the bearded dude’s wife, played by the great Judy Greer in psycho mode. Wielding a high-powered rifle while she sucks on Fentanyl lollipops and engineers fresh hell for Barb, Greer is a hoot and a half and a formidable opponent.
What a pleasure to see a suspenseful nailbiter in which women play both sides of good and evil, as men basically look on. Does it matter that “Dead of Winter” doesn’t make a lick of sense? Nah. There’s blood in the snow and holes in the logic, and yet Thompson puts on a hell of a show, doing stunts that would shame Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and building a character Barb herself would describe as “dangerous as all heck.” There’s no resisting that.