... but she won't quit, ya, so maybe watch out, she is one tenacious lady doing something important for her husband, ya know! I make those references somewhat flippantly, but it is hard to discount in this largely sparely and tightly directed story, here about an older widow trying to stay alive from a very dangerous and unlikely foe that happens upon her when she discovers a kidnapping - which largely has a cast of four with a few interlopers in the present and past tense scenes - when there is a deliberately long scene where we see the lead getting a bullet out and dressing a wound (there is a comment made, "just like knitting a quilt") and a truck set dramatically on fire via gas cap (though here it is to get attention in a different way than what Chigurh did), not to mention the Minnesota accents. This is not meant to say Dead of Winter is even close to being as a dark comedy like what the Coens used to do, or even that the stakes are the same (this is about, well, shady organ harvesting opposed to the big ol' dollar signs), but the key factor is the casting of Emma Thompson. I don't know how she got involved in this right now - she has a producer credit somewhere - and it is one of the most inspired pieces of casting in the past few years. She has a warmth and intelligence in her eyes as a performer that serves as a light amid the gloomy overcast day-time scenes and eventually a monologue in a cellar about not giving up. She surprises probably because she seems like a character that shouldn't be in this story, but because she is she has to think on her feet - and fast. This isn't to say she is more or less someone to empathize with than like Moss in No Country, but it is a very different character and set of circumstances, not least of which because of a series of flashback memories to the leads dear late husband. Those flashbacks are my least favorite sections of the film (not bad, just that they take us away from the intensity of the present tense happenings and suspense), and yet I understand close to the end why they are there. What this leads to is sadder than one may expect and at the same time this is not a bleak affair; there is an electric charge too getting to see Judy Greer as this antagonist who we do understand what she is doing, even as her means are violent and terrible. So, once again if you see this in theaters count this as another "hey, Vertical entertainment trying to fight the good fight of the theatrical released Reliable Studio Programmers... in a world where they are dying faster than the Blue whales."

See other user reviews