Jack Frost
USA 1998
Reviewed by Amanda Lipman
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Frost is a singer in a rock band on the brink of success. When he's not on the road or in a studio somewhere, he lives with his wife Gabby and their 11 year-old son Charlie in Colorado. Jack breaks, a Promise to Charlie to watch him play in an ice-hockey match. To make up for it, he promises the three of them will spend Christmas together in a cabin in the mountains, At the last minute Jack is invited to a music mogul's party with the lure of a big record deal. Half way there, he decides to go back to his family for
Christmas after all, but is killed on the way in a car accident.
A year later, Charlie is still grieving for his dad. After a new fall of snow he decides to build a snowman in the garden, something he and his father did each year. He dresses it in his father's old scarf and hat. That night, the snowman comes to life as jack. Charlie is at first horrified, then drawn to the snowman who saves him from the school bullies and becomes the father he never was before. jack drags himself across th e rapidly melting snow to see Charlie play gloriously in the ice-hockey team. Desperate not to lose his father again, Charlie takes Jack up to the
cabin in the mountains to cool him down, but jack realises he has to leave and says goodbye to Charlie and Gabby.
Review
From its opening rock version of 'Frosty the Snowman' onwards, Jack Frost makes the point that it is a children's film with an adult theme about loss and bereavement. This old-fashioned rites-of passage story is knowingly overlaid with contemporary psychological references. When Jack returns as the snowman he even talks his way through the various 'stages' of mourning - denial, anger, grief - as he works out how he's been reincarnated.
The story is played out almost entirely through the relationship between Jack and Charlie and moves fairly adeptly between the experience of each of them. When Jack is alive, his world revolves around his band and his love for his wife and son, endlessly anguished with guilt for never being there enough. Once he's dead, he becomes both a comic recreation, trying to come to terms with his new outer self and, now free of his life's other distractions, an utterly involved father, Keaton plays out the living Jack with manic enthusiasm, allowing himself to relax into comedy as the voice of the snowman. Meanwhile, Charlie zigzags sensitively and convincingly between hero worship and anger towards his living father and we see how that anger becomes part of his depression once Jack has died. When he finds Jack again, there is something touching both in his love, which overcomes any sense of the ridiculous, and his tenacious determination to keep jack against all the odds.
The message - that children have to learn to deal with loss as part of growing up may sometimes feel rather crudely put, but it is certainly a potent one. As Jack leaves for the last time, promising to be always in Charlie's heart, we can all weep with Charlie as he learns that, contrary to all our existential fears, 'dead' does not have to mean 'forgotten'. Even the film's bad boy, the orphaned school bully, seems to have learned this lesson when (via the kind of instant magic only found in films) he is touched by Charlie's determination to keep his father and, muttering "snowdad" is better than no dad" helps him on his way.
The film is tied up in its father/son dynamic that, inevitably, other characters remain less than satisfying. In particular, the sexy, understanding, perfect-mother Gabby is always just one step behind the real emotional dynamic, acting as a foil for the relationship between Jack and Charlie, and never quite coming to life herself. But it hardly needs saying that this is not, ultimately, a piece of social realism. It's a modern fairytale, complete with a magic harmonica that brings the snowman to life and a picture-postcard setting, featuring row upon row of twinkling Christmas lights and endless snowy vistas. And these also provide the backdrop for the impressive and exciting fight-and-chase scenes full of giant snowballs, sleighs, ice skates and snowboards, guaranteed to appeal to snow-hungry kids.
Credits
- Producers
- Mark Canton
- Irying Azoff
- Screenplay
- Mark Steven Johnson
- Steve Bloom
- Jonathan Roberts
- Jeff Cesario
- Story
- Mark Steven Johnson
- Director of Photography
- Laszlo Kovacs
- Editor
- Lawrence Jordan
- Production Designer
- Mayne Berke
- Music
- Trevor Rabin
- ©Warner Bros.
- Production Companies
- Warner Bros. presents an
- Azoff
- Entertainment/Canton
- Company production
- Executive Producers
- Matthew Baer
- Jeff Barry
- Richard Goldsmith
- Michael Tadross,
- Associate Producers
- Barbara Kalish
- Production Supervisor
- 2nd Unit:
- Craig Armstrong
- Unit Production Manager
- Justin Moritt
- Locations Manager
- Patrick McIntire
- Post-production
- Supervisor
- Russ Kavanaugh
- Assistant Directors
- Frank Capra III
- Jim Chory
- Sean McCarron
- Todd Murata
- Ken Wada
- Erie Tignini
- 2nd Unit:
- Jerram Swartz
- Amy Schmidt
- Script Superieisors
- Jules Mann-Stewart
- 2nd Unit:
- Sherry Gallarneau
- Casting
- Marci Liroff
- 2nd Unit Director of
- Photography
- Clyde Smith
- Camera Operators
- Neal Norton
- Donald E. Thorin Jr
- 2nd Unit Aerial:
- Rick Shuster
- Steadicam
- Neal NortonNeal Norton
- 2nd Unit Operator:
- Chris Squires
- Visual Effects
- Supervisor:
- Joe Letteri
- Producer:
- Helen Ostenberg E1swit
- Co-ordinator:
- Mitchell Ferm,
- Special Visual
- Effects/Animation
- Industrial Light & Magic
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Camille Geier
- Animation Supervisor:
- Paul Griffin
- CG Supervisors:
- Gregor Lakner
- Robert Marinic
- Tom Rosseter
- Lead Animator:
- Chris Armstrong
- Lead Matchmover:
- Lanny Cermak
- Modelling Supervisor
- Stewart Lew
- Digital Timing
- Supervisor:
- Kenneth Smith
- Scanning Supervisor:
- Joshua Pines
- Art Director:
- Eric Rigling
- Visual Effects Editor:
- Michael Gleason
- Digital Artists:
- Mimi Abers
- Felix Balbas
- Kathleen Beeler
- Barbara Brennan
- Amelia Chenoweth
- Paul Churchill
- Patrick Conran
- Mark Cooper
- Natasha Devaud
- Jeremy Goldman
- Gerald Gutschmidt
- Hilmar Koch
- Joshua Levine
- Ken McGaugh
- Jai Natarajan
- Julie Neary
- Barbara Nellis
- Kenneth Nielsen
- Henry Preston
- Scott Prior
- Alan Rosenfeld
- Hans Uhlig
- Lindy Wilson
- Animators:
- Philip Alexy
- Alain Costa
- David Gosman
- Shawn Kelly
- David Latour
- Steve Lee
- Martin L'Heureux
- Mark Powers
- Dave Sidley
- Si Tran
- Michaela Zabranska
- Modeller:
- Alexander Pouchkarev
- 3D Camera Matchmove
- Artists:
- Keith Johnson
- Jason Snell
- John Whisnant
- Lead Roto Artist:
- Heidi Zabit
- Digital Paint/Roto Artists:
- Scott Bormenfant
- Deborah Fought
- Susan Weeks
- Envelopers:
- Rick Grandy
- Sunny Lee
- Visual Effects Co-
- Ordinators:
- Julie Creighton
- Penny Runge
- David Valentine
- CG Technicians:
- Cedrick Chan
- Kathleen Davidson
- Brian Gee
- Daniel Lobl
- Mark Sanders
- Anthony Shafer
- Digital Plate Restoration:
- Lydia Greenfield
- Nancy Jencks
- Special Visual Effects
- Rainmaker Digital
- Pictures
- Digital Effects
- Supervisors:
- Peter Sternlicht
- Mark franco
- Compositing Supervisor:
- Brigitte Bourque
- 3D Digital Artists:
- Kay Cloud
- Dale Mayeda
- Dave Rand
- Digital Compositors:
- Andy Barrios
- Brian Battles
- Linda Cordella
- Will McCoy
- Digital Effects Producer:
- Tim Belcher
- Digital Film Supervisor:
- Chris Kutcka
- Scanning/Recording.
- Steve Hedge
- Digital Matte Paintings
- Moving Target
- Live Action Frost Effects
- Jim Henson's Creature
- Shop
- Creative Supervisor:
- David Barrington Holt
- General Manager:
- Matt J. Britton
- Production Supervisor:
- Sally Ray
- Visual
- Supervisor/Sculptor
- Mark Wahlberg
- Mold/Foam Shop
- Supervisor
- Phil Jackson
- Lead Mechanical
- Designer:
- Tristan Maduro
- Mechanical Designer:
- Christian Ristow
- Frost Costume Designers:
- Rick Cedillo
- Marian Keating
- Julie Zobel
- Special Effects
- Co-ordinator:
- Steve Galich
- Supervisor
- Jeff Frink
- Miniature
- Fabrication/Photography
- Vision Crew
- Additional Editor
- Lori C. Ingle
- Associate Editor
- Robert Brakey
- Art Director
- Gary Diamond
- Set Designers
- John P. Bruce
- Mindi Toback
- Stan Tropp
- Set Decorator
- Ronald R. Reiss
- Storyboard Artist
- Michael Davis
- Snowman/Ice Sculptor
- Alberto Revilla
- Costume Designer
- Sarah Edwards
- Key Make-up Artist
- Sharon Ilson
- Key Hairstylist
- Frida Aradóttir
- Titles Design
- Imaginary Forces
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Conductors
- Don Harper
- John Van Tongeren
- Orchestrations
- Gordon Goodwin
- Don Harper
- John Van Tongeren
- Music Production Supervisor
- Trevor Rabin
- Music Editors
- Will Kaplan
- Tom Kramer
- Music Score Mixer
- Steve Kempster
- Music Score Programming
- Paul Linford
- Music Consultant
- Jordan Sommers
- Soundtrack
- "Frosty the Snowman" by
- Steve Nelson, jack
- Rollins, performed by
- The Jack Frost Band; "Roll with the Changes" by
- Kevin Cronin, performed
- by REO Speedwagon;
- "Merry Christmas Baby"
- by Lou Baxter, Johnny Moore, performed by
- Hanson;
- "Everytime We Say Goodbye"
- by Cole Porter;
- "Rock and Roll(Part 2)" by Gary Glitter, Mike Leander
- performed by Gary Glitter,
- "Don' Lose Your Faith" by
- Trevor Rabin, Michael Keaton, performed by
- The Jack Frost Band
- featuring Michael Keaton;
- "Can't Let Go"
- by Randy Weeks, performed
- by Lucinda Williams;
- "Leavin'Again"
- by / performed by Steve Poltz;
- "Couldn't Stand the Weather"
- by / performed Stevie Ray Vaughan;
- "Landslide" by Stevie Nicks,
- performed by Fleetwood Mac;
- "Free Ride" by Dan Hartman,
- performed by Edgar Winter Group;
- "Hey Now Now"
- by Shelly Peiken,
- John Shanks, Denny Scott,
- Kenny Scott,
- performed by Swirl 306;
- "Final Fire" from the film Backdraft
- by Hans Zimmer;
- "Jingle Bell Rock" by Joe Beal, Jim Boothe,
- performed by Michael Sherswood's >Tangle Town;
- "Hot in the City" by/performed by
- Billy Idol;"Gimme Some Lovin" by Stevie Winwood, Muff Winwood, Spencer Davis, performed by
- Hanson;
- "Sleigh Ride" by
- Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish,
- performed by Spice Girls,
- "Slow Ride" by Dave Peverett, performed by
- >Foghat;
- "Five Candles (You Were There)" by
- Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell, Stephen Mason, Matt Odmark,
- performed by Jars of Clay;
- "How" by/performed by Lisa Loeb;
- "Father's Love" by Bob Carlisle, Randy Thomas, performed by
- Bob Carlisle;
- "Good Lovin" by Arthur Resnick, Rudy Clark,
- performed by Hanson
- Sound Mixer
- Thomas Brandau
- Re-recording Mixers
- Gregory H. Watkins
- Kvin E. Carpenter
- Robert Schaper
- Supervising Sound Editors
- Gregory King
- Robert Grieve
- Dialogue Editors
- Darren King
- John Stuver
- Kim Haves Drummond
- Sound Effect Editors
- Yann Delpuech
- Ryan Eldred
- Frank Smathers,
- Allan Bromberg
- Steve Mann
- ADR
- Mixer:
- Thomas J. O'Connell
- Supervising Editor:
- Greg Brown
- Editors:
- Kimberly Harris
- Stephanie Flack
- Cliff Latimer
- Linda Folk
- Foley
- Artists:
- John Roesch
- Hilda Hodges
- Mixer:
- Mary Jo Lang
- Editors:
- Dan Yale
- Gaston. Biraben
- Hockey Advisor
- Jack White
- Ice Skating Adviser
- Sarah Elliot-Dick
- 2nd Unit Ski Unit
- Consultant
- Robert Huntoon
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- Buddy Joe Hooker
- Chad Randall
- Cast
- Michael Keaton
- Jack Frost
- Kelly Preston
- Gabby Frost
- Mark Addy
- Mac MacArther
- Joseph Cross
- Charlie Frost
- Andy Lawrence
- Tuck Gronic
- Eli Marienthal
- Spencer
- Will Rothhaar
- Dennis
- Mika Boorem
- Natalie
- Benjamin Brock
- Alexander
- Taylor Handley
- Rory Buck
- Joe Rokicki
- Mitch
- Cameron Ferre
- Pudge
- Ahmet Zappa
- snowplow drive
- Paul F. Tompkins
- audience member
- Henry Rollins
- Sid Gronic
- Dweezil Zappa
- John Kaplan
- Steve Giannelli
- referee
- Jay Johmitun
- TV weatherman
- Jeff Cesario
- radio announcer
- Scott Thomson
- Dennis's dad
- Googy Gross
- Spencer's dad
- Scott Kraft
- Natalie's dad
- Jimmy Michaels
- Devil's goalie
- Ajai Sanders
- interviewer
- John Ennis
- truck driver
- Wayne Federman
- Dave, policeman
- Golden Henning
- bank customer
- Pat Cramiford Brown
- scorekeeper
- Mr Chips
- Chester the dog
- Denise Cheshire
- Bruce Lanoil
- in suit performers
- The Jack Frost Band
- Tmor Rabin
- Trevor, lead guitar
- Lili Haydn
- Lili, violin
- Louis Molino III
- Lou, drummer
- Scott Colomby
- Scott, bass
- Certificate
- PG
- Distributor
- Warner Bros Distributors
- (UK)
- 9,108 feet
- 101 minutes 12 seconds
- Dolby digital/DTS
- digital/SDDS
- Colour/Prints by
- Technicolor