Second Wind has been called the Netherlands' TheBig Chill, but in fact it lacks the Chill's warmth in telling of agathering of old friends who spend a long day in a big house outside ofAmsterdam. These are the real "young professionals"-most ofthem designers or architects, some of them lovers, all of them lonelyand suppressing the urge to scream out behind a sophisticated facadethat reveals nothing. But as such a day progresses, agonies will out,and by evening, friendships have cracked, lovers have split, a marriagehas been dissected, a family is torn by revelations. No explanation isoffered as to what has brought these people together-for the day, orotherwise-and the film seems haunted by the spectre of another unseen,unspoken presence. Mid-day, a distant rumble, darkness, and anunpleasant wind remind us that this is a generation of Europeans quiteliterally living under a cloud, threatened by the very apparatus putthere to protect their uniquely privileged lives. Gerrard Verhage'sdebut feature casts some of the Netherlands' top young actors in achallenging chamber piece.