Snow Day (film)

The film opens with a narration by Hal Brandston, (Mark Webber) explaining how a snowflake is formed. It changes to his father, a news reporter named Tom Brandston, (Chevy Chase) giving the weather report before walking away backstage, annoyed with his job, before seeing another reporter, Chad Symmonz, (John Schneider) who tries to be better than him, giving a false report on a forecast; this makes him resent Chad even further. The film then changes to Hal, trying to get noticed by Claire Bonner (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a girl that he really likes. After he slips and falls in a swimming pool, he notices her anklet, with a whale insignia, at the bottom. He swims over and grabs it, wanting to return it to her, but he expresses that he is too shy to talk to her. The film then changes focus to a group of elementary school students, led by Hal's sister, Natalie (Zena Grey), who wants to have a snow day. She hits the principal, Mr. Weaver, with a snowball. (This becomes a running gag, quite literally, where he gets hit with numerous snowballs by unseen kids and gets no help from onlookers). When she wishes for it to snow that night, Tom notices a huge snowstorm that will happen overnight, proving Chad's forecast wrong.

Waking up the next morning, Natalie notices snow all over town, and all the kids cheer, after their school is announced to be closed for a snow day (much to Mr. Weaver's dismay). Right before she goes outside, Natalie notices a mean snowplow driver, who the kids call "Snowplow Man" (Chris Elliott), plowing the streets. Meanwhile, Hal tries to win Claire's heart, while still trying to return her anklet, with the help of his best friend, Lane Leonard (Schuyler Fisk), who secretly harbors feelings for him. Back at home, his and Natalie's workaholic mother, Laura Brandston (Jean Smart), are stuck at home with their mischievous younger brother, Randy, who is bored to death and wants to go play in the snow.

Natalie and her friends, Wayne (Josh Peck) and Chet (Jade Yorker), build an igloo, but it is quickly destroyed by the Snowplow Man, who gets revenge on them for hitting him with a snowball. They eventually come up with a plan to take over the plow and move all the snow back in the streets so they could have a second snow day. They use Wayne as bait by pouring ketchup on him and having him pretending to be dead. As the Snowplow Man checks out the scene, Natalie and Chet steal his pet bird, Trudy, so he kidnaps Wayne, wanting an exchange for her. After he refuses to give them a second snow day, but still returning Wayne and Trudy, Natalie decides that extreme measures need to be taken.

After trying to talk to Claire many times, even going to her house, only to see that everyone found out about her break-up with her mean and ill-tempered boyfriend, Chuck Wheeler (David Paetkau), Hal decides to see how things end up between them. He and Claire share a look after she and Chuck ride away on his snowmobile. Hal decides to try another way of getting her attention—by going to the ice rink, and Lane lures the boring disc jockey (Iggy Pop) into the bathroom. Hal takes advantage of the stereo system and talks to Claire, in front of everyone, and Chuck, who views Hal as a target for his "House Of Pain". Later, Hal tries to get Claire's attention again by making a whale-shaped figure in the snow with a shovel (only to learn she likes zebras). Chuck finds him though, while following her, and tries to attack him, but he reveals he is not afraid of him. He runs and jumps on Chuck's snowmobile, riding away into the woods, with Chuck and his followers gaining on him. But Chuck is quickly outsmarted and lands into a soccer goal net.

Elsewhere, Tom is reporting at a snow sledding hill and at an ice-sculpting contest. After noticing a statue of Chad, which infuriates him so much, he tries to take the sculpting kid's ice pick, intending on destroying it. But when it falls, Chad begins humiliating Tom, so he tries asking him where snow comes from. Chad, trying to save himself, slowly ends up revealing that he is a fraud. The crowd calls him a loser, and he leaves for good, after the crowd cheers Tom's name, bringing his career back up.

That night, Natalie and Chet reveal that they gathered all the kids in town to confront the Snowplow Man, as he makes his way to the last snow covered street. Snowplow Man is overwhelmed by the kids as he is tied up, but he declares that he's already won since all the other streets have already been plowed. Natalie and Chet then reveal their intention to steal his snowplow and "un-plow" all the other streets. Later, Hal soon realizes he loves Lane instead of Claire; he is even encouraged by Claire to go after her. After one last stand to Chuck, and almost being beaten senseless, Natalie plows right into him, who gets covered in snow, unable to get out, and rescuing Hal in the process. Hal finally admits to Lane that he loves her and they share a kiss. Natalie is happy that she and her friends finally got a second snow day, and they drive the plow away. Laura takes the day off to look after Randy, even playing in the snow with him. Having found new paths in their lives, the Brandstons, Lane, and Claire are finally happy.

When Mr. Weaver gets home, thinking he is safe, the kids (who somehow got into there), hit him with a lot of snowballs as he cries in defeat and the film ends.

This is the first of two films to star both Josh Peck and Zena Grey, the other being Max Keeble's Big Move, released the following year.

The film was filmed in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, as well as Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta. Much of the outdoor snow scenes were filmed at the Bonnie Doon Park in Edmonton, which had recently had a do-over and offered a natural setting in an urban location.

It was originally set to be based on the television series The Adventures of Pete & Pete, but the idea was scrapped and it was rewritten as a stand-alone story.

The film's soundtrack peaked at number 183 on the Billboard 200 chart.[6]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]

The following songs were included in the film but not featured on the soundtrack:

• Al Martino – "Love Letters", "Fascination" and "To Each His Own"
• Irving Berlin – "Heat Wave"
• Smash Mouth – "Satellite"
• Ernest Gold – "The Big W"
• Simon Chardiet – "Drag Blob"
• The Wiseguys – "Ooh La La"
• Schuyler Fisk – "It's Not Her"
• The Brian Setzer Orchestra – "Switchblade 327"

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Snow Day (film)

• Snow Day at IMDb 
• Snow Day at the TCM Movie Database
• Snow Day at AllMovie
• Snow Day at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Snow Day at Rotten Tomatoes