Winter Passing
by Adam Rapp
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DVD details
Actor: Darrell Larson, Ed Harris, John Bedford Lloyd, Will Ferrell, Zooey DeschanelDirector: Adam Rapp
Brand: FOX
Writer: Adam Rapp
Producer: Anthony Katagas
Producer: Bob Yari
Producer: David Koplan
Producer: Erin Eggers
Producer: Laura Bickford
Producer: Lawrence Inglee
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
Published: 2006-05-01
DVD Release Date: 2006-05-16
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Winter Passing
DVD Review: Sort of beautiful in its own dark and dysfunctional way
Summary: 5 Stars
You look at this film, especially the cover, and you think quirky comedy. Will Ferrell's in it, so you know it has to be a comedy. Well, it is quirky, but Winter Passing is not a comedy; it's actually a pretty bleak, depressing film. Seemingly by design, the film defies your attempts to get your mind around what is going on. Reese, the main character, is a complex, bitter young woman who seems about one disappointment away from killing herself. The kitten scene, which you may have heard of, was especially off-putting to me. I can see how it fits into the movie as a whole, and it's actually a pretty basic, simple scene, but this animal lover didn't see it coming, found it pretty heartbreaking, and struggled to put it behind me as the story progressed. Had I known about this one scene, I doubt I would ever have watched this movie. I'm not trying to turn anyone away from this movie when I say this, though, because this really is an excellent, compelling film.
Great characters make for great films, and Winter Passing has three, almost four, of them. None of them are exactly normal, though. The aforementioned Reese (Zooey Deschanel) is a down-and-almost-out actress/barmaid in New York going nowhere fast. Looking at her, you would never know she was the daughter of two prominent writers, neither of whom she has seen in years. She didn't even go home for her mother's funeral. Her father, Don Holden (Ed Harris), is something of a recluse who disappeared from the scene a while back. Reese really has no plans of ever going home to Michigan again - not until, that is, a literary agency offers her a hundred grand for the letters her parents exchanged early in their relationship. Reese doesn't exactly jump at the money, initially telling the literary agent to go jump. Later, though, as she further succumbs to her depression and thinks about how much cocaine and cigarettes a hundred grand would buy, she changes her mind and catches a bus bound for the Wolverine State.
Returning to the home of so many bad childhood memories, she is met at the door by a stranger, a pretty strange stranger in the form of Corbit (Will Ferrell), a quiet and somewhat childlike "rocker" who once played in a Christian rock band but now acts as a bodyguard of sorts for her dad. Shelly (Amelia Warner), a former student of her dad's, also lives there, sort of classing up the joint with her accent and doing the cooking and cleaning for Corbit and Reese's father, who has now taken up residence in the garage out back. The acclaimed writer (played brilliantly by Ed Harris) is really a broken man: long, unkempt hair, a glass of liquor perpetually in his hand, unwilling or unable to feed or take care of himself, and writing very little. This whole, bizarre living situation does nothing to improve Reese's outlook on life, which leads to conflict with her father and with Shelly. It's basically dysfunctionality squared, leading up to some real emotional fireworks after she discovers exactly how her mother died. Reese originally came to find the set of letters her mother left her, but she ends up staying several days and discovering a lot of more important things about her father and herself. Some emotional issues do get resolved between the main characters, but this isn't exactly the feel-good movie of the year. I would not advise anyone to watch this movie if they're already feeling depressed.
I personally think this is an excellent, albeit unconventional, film, and I'm a little surprised that it doesn't have a higher average rating. Obviously, the film is probably too dark and weird for some people, and others may just be mad because they expected it to be a comedy, but it's really quite a touching film in its own way, and it has a lot to say about life in general. Will Ferrell, I must say, really shows his acting chops in his out-of-character performance as Corbit, Zooey Deschanel seems to be seizing the troubled young woman reins once wielded by Wynona Rider, and Ed Harris is simply superb in his portrayal of the alcoholic, shambling, broken father. The atmosphere and flow of the film really fit the conditions and characters, the writer and director never sell out or overexploit the melodrama borne of the characters' relationships, and the ending doesn't overextend itself across the bounds of believability. Wild Passing is a difficult film to describe; you really have to experience it for yourself.
Description of Winter Passing
Adam Rapp's offbeat film about homecoming and reconciliation features an all-star cast, including Will Ferrell (Old School), Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous, Elf) and Oscar® nominee Ed Harris (1998, Best Supporting Actor, The Truman Show). When a book editor (Academy Award® nominee Amy Madigan ? 1985, Best Supporting Actress, Twice in a Lifetime) offers to buy the love letters of Reese Holden's (Deschanel) parents, Reese must return home to recover them, only to find her widowed dad (Harris) golfing upstairs, sleeping outside, and living with roommates ? a pretty grad student (Amelia Warner) and a quirky wanna-be musician (Ferrell)! As Reese begins to understand her roots, she learns to accept who she's become.Reese (Zooey Deschanel, All the Real Girls) is a brusk barmaid/actress, toiling away in the East Village fringe circuit. Her father is reclusive J.D. Salinger-like author Don Holdin (Ed Harris, A History of Violence). Reese hasn't seen him for years. One night after a performance, an editor from a major publishing house (Amy Madigan, Carnivàle), offers $100,000 for the letters he and her late mother exchanged during their courtship. Reese turns her down flat. Eventually, she changes her mind and takes off for rural Michigan to retrieve them. She finds the disheveled, hard-drinking Don living with former student Shelly (Amelia Warner, Quills) and ex-Christian rocker Corbit (a disarmingly straight-faced Will Ferrell). It's a bizarre, if functional arrangement: Shelly cooks the meals, while Corbit serves as security guard. All try to make nice, but the coke-snorting, insult-flinging Reese won't have any of it. She just wants to find the letters and go. This turns out to be trickier than expected, especially once she actually sits down to read them. Directed by and adapted from his two-act play, Adam Rapp's Winter Passing is the kind of well-intentioned independent where longstanding family issues are solved in just a few days (to the gentle strains of Cat Power and the Shins). Nonetheless, it offers the unique opportunity to see Deschanel and Ferrell, Elf's charmingly mis-matched couple, cast against type. As expected, Harris provides solid support, while Warner's clear-eyed Shelly is the true heart of the story. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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