Common Sense Media Review
By Andrea Beach
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
College-reunion film with mature themes may bore teens.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
The Big Chill
What's the Story?
A group of college friends (Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, and JoBeth Williams) are reunited for a funeral when one of them commits suicide. They decide to spend the weekend together revisiting past loves, discovering new ones, and coming to grips with all the ways their lives have taken unexpected turns.
Is It Any Good?
THE BIG CHILL is a loving, bittersweet look at how lives change during the transition from young adulthood to middle age. As such, it's unlikely to hold the interest of teens more focused on great expectations. The cast is outstanding, all quietly bringing tremendous depth to the subtlest moments. Adults will relate, but teens will find little in common with the characters in a movie that almost entirely consists of watching them talk to each other over the course of a weekend reunion. Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote and directed, deftly balances and weaves the intertwining stories and gives us a loving, but not rose-colored, look at how surprising it is to realize you're a grown-up.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how attitudes toward drinking, smoking, and taking drugs have changed, both since the time the characters would have been in college together in the late '60s and since the movie was made in the early '80s.
Do you have a group of close friends? Can you imagine getting together with them 15 years from now? What do you think that would be like?
Do you know anyone, or have you yourself, thought about suicide? Do you know where to go for help?
Movie Details
- In theaters : August 28, 1983
- On DVD or streaming : January 26, 1999
- Cast : Tom Berenger , Glenn Close , Jeff Goldblum , William Hurt , Kevin Kline
- Director : Lawrence Kasdan
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studios : Columbia Pictures , Carson Productions
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Friendship
- Run time : 105 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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