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Winter Passing

2006, Movie, R, 98 mins

Winter Passing: Review

WINTER PASSING
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It's not every actress who can drown a kitten within the first 20 minutes of a film and still manage to hold the audience's sympathy, but this is exactly what Zooey Deschanel pulls off in this first feature from playwright Adam Rapp. Deschanel plays Reese, the only child of the celebrated novelists Don Holden (Ed Harris) and his recently deceased wife, Mary. Having fought her whole life for the attention of her two famous parents who seemed far more committed to their work and each other rather than to raising a child, Reese is now trying to make her way as an actress in New York City, scoring a supporting part in an avant-garde production of A Winter's Tale while tending bar, snorting coke and engaging in meaningless sex with her costar (Dallas Roberts). Unable to feel much of anything on her own, Reese often turns to self-abuse to help her cry; slamming her fingers in a bureau drawer always seems to work. Reese, however, can easily feel resentment towards her parents — she didn't even attend her mother's funeral — but considers a bus trip home to her father's house in rural Michigan when the literary agent Lori Lansky (Amy Madigan) dangles an intriguing proposition. Lori offers Reese $100,000 for the letters her parents exchanged during the first three years of their relationship, a correspondence Lori would like to publish as a book. At first Reese flatly refuses, but after the show closes and her new kitten is diagnosed with feline leukemia (prompting the aforementioned kitten-cide), Reese hops on a bus home to retrieve her parents' correspondence. The author of several important novels, Don Holden hasn't published anything in nearly 20 years and Reese has heard rumors that what he has turned into his editor was nearly illegible, but nothing quite prepares Reese for what she finds when she finally comes face to face with her father. Weakened by ill-heath, heavy drinking and insurmountable grief, Don has quit teaching and now lives in the crumbling detached garage, leaving the main house to a pretty former student, Shelly (Amelia Warner), and an eccentric former Christian rocker, Corbit (Will Ferrell). At first Reese suspects the worst — Shelly must be sleeping with her father; while Corbit is obviously just a freeloader — but she soon discovers the poignant truth of their arrangement, as well as the much harder truth about her mother's death. Rapp's theatrical past is evident throughout: His strongest scenes tend to be those purely character-driven moments when his sharp dialogue takes precedence over any cinematic action. Harris gives another strong performance and Ferrell is great in a comic but low-key role, but this is Deschanel's movie. With a great part to really sink her teeth into, she's finally graduated from interesting newcomer to a fine young actress. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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