NOTES ON TONE

THAW captures a tale of “becoming” by creating a luscious and emotional reality, one in which the cold and the heat are always brushing against one another. The viewer intimately studies the bodies and behaviors of Huck and Smith, as they do the same to each other. Although this study teeters between the invasive and balletic, there is also a sense of humor to the way these two fumble and attempt to prove themselves to each other, namely in their simplistic performance of gender roles. The love between Huck and Smith requires a killing off of that which does not serve them, and that violence and fear manifests in a subtly suspenseful texture to the film. The ways these characters are able to invade each other's psychology and weak-spots invites a dangerous intimacy that is passionate and irresistible.