The Big Chill

 The Big Chill is a 1983 film which stars Glenn Close (nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, but won by Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously), Tom Berenger,  Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams and Kevin Costner (all of whose scenes where his face is seen were cut).  

The film received two other Academy Award nominations:  Best Picture (won by Terms of Endearment) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Lawrence Kasdan and Barbara Benedek, but won by Horton Foote for Tender Mercies).  

Before the movie's story begins, Alex (Costner) commits suicide.  Many friends from his time while a student at the University of Michigan (my daughter's alma mater) gather at his funeral in South Carolina.  Afterwards, they all stay for some days, mourning and reminiscing, at the nearby home of Harold (Kline) and Sarah (Close), fellow Michigan alumni who had invited Alex to stay with them.

The film opens with Marvin Gaye's rendition of I Heard It Through the Grapevine.  Other popular songs used in the movie are You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones, My Girl by The Temptations and Wouldn't It Be Nice by The Beach Boys.  

There is a scene in which the group of alumni watch a Michigan-Michigan State football game on TV.   For this purpose, they used the October 11, 1980 game at the Big House in Ann Arbor won by the Wolverines, 27-23.

One day while they are all together, Meg (Place), who believes she is ovulating, tells Sarah she is fed up with failed relationships and intends to have a child on her own. Sarah volunteers her husband to be the father.  He agrees and spends the night with Meg.

"What does the film's title mean? Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan explains that The Big Chill refers to the experience of cold adult reality after leaving the “warm embrace” of true friendship during college."