November 10, 2006
Winter Passing is the latest movie I've seen. The movie revolves around Reese (Zooey Deschanel), who is a painfully lost actress trying to make it in NYC. She's approached by a book editor who wants to publish her dead mother's letters to her father. With the offer of money lingering over her head, she decides to take a trip home to see if she can find the letters in question. She hasn't been back since she was 18 years old so when she finally makes it home, she finds things have changed a bit. There are now 2 strangers living in her home. There's Corbit (Will Ferrell), the awkward man-boy wanna be musician and Shelly (Amelia Warner), a former student of her father. Where's her father? Don (Ed Harris) has moved out of the house and settled into the garage.
There definitely are some interesting dynamics between all these characters. They've created this pseudo family between them that at times Reese seems to find odd, but then seems to expect nothing less from her crazy writer dad. Even though the movie itself is slow, the slowness ads to the pain. Pain is definitely the main character in this movie. Reese is in pain from the way she was raised and her father's in pain from losing his wife. Healthy coping skills aren't on the list in this family either. Zooey Deschanel is good at playing these types of characters and Ed Harris is great, you can really feel his dispair.
All in all, I thought the movie was all right even if it is slow and painful. Even so, it goes to show you there's nothing like pain caused by family and they're the only one's who can make it better.