A British New Wave/Kitchen Sink drama involving how fate works... not the first or last... and SNOWBALL is set in some pretty nice weather, so the title's about gossip gaining momentum...
And all because of child actor Dennis Waterman as an English suburban kid who shares to his parents and a neighbor how a bus driver dumped him off: having to walk home four miles... the last stretch of that seemingly breezy stride opening the movie with credits shown...
So it's not very difficult for the audience to realize the kid's a liar, making this a melodrama without much mystery: although SNOWBALL has many elements of the latter, including a cub reporter trying to get to the bottom of things, wishboned between his editors and the bus company...
But the true main character is the kid's mom, pretty British actress Zena Walker in one of many friendly mom or wife roles... here she's married to strict husband/father Gordon Williams, and the sparse realism into their seemingly typical household circumstance both literally and symbolically represents the Kitchen Sink aspect...
Meanwhile on the outskirts, yet technically holding the most significance, is a British character-actor who usually plays troubled, mousy sorts: Yet Kenneth Griffith has a wife as faithful and even similarly down-home-pretty as the central family in an ironical juxtaposition that's somewhat intriguing...
If only there were more stakes raised for the kid, played by Waterman, who, despite being a great child actor (before becoming an adult who'd never not have a hit TV series), seems to basically care less about pretty much anything and everything all along.
And all because of child actor Dennis Waterman as an English suburban kid who shares to his parents and a neighbor how a bus driver dumped him off: having to walk home four miles... the last stretch of that seemingly breezy stride opening the movie with credits shown...
So it's not very difficult for the audience to realize the kid's a liar, making this a melodrama without much mystery: although SNOWBALL has many elements of the latter, including a cub reporter trying to get to the bottom of things, wishboned between his editors and the bus company...
But the true main character is the kid's mom, pretty British actress Zena Walker in one of many friendly mom or wife roles... here she's married to strict husband/father Gordon Williams, and the sparse realism into their seemingly typical household circumstance both literally and symbolically represents the Kitchen Sink aspect...
Meanwhile on the outskirts, yet technically holding the most significance, is a British character-actor who usually plays troubled, mousy sorts: Yet Kenneth Griffith has a wife as faithful and even similarly down-home-pretty as the central family in an ironical juxtaposition that's somewhat intriguing...
If only there were more stakes raised for the kid, played by Waterman, who, despite being a great child actor (before becoming an adult who'd never not have a hit TV series), seems to basically care less about pretty much anything and everything all along.