Winter Passing Review
by Jerry Saravia (Faust668 AT msn DOT com)December 26th, 2007
WINTER PASSING (2005)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Three stars and a half
If you are expecting the lively, charming Zooey Deschanel from "Almost Famous" or from her brief turn in "Failure to Launch," you are in for a disappointment. Though it will take a few more films before she becomes a really good actress, her solemn, methodical performance in "Winter Passing" is a future reminder of a fine talent indeed. The film and her performance will remind you of the great Ingmar Bergman, and that isn't faint praise.
Zooey is Reese Holden, a repressed young actress living in New York City. She works as a bartender and does anything she can to, well, feel something. She detaches herself from everything, including sex, drugs, smoking, her cat - everything. Feeling pain seems to be an afterthought - she violently slams her hand in a drawer and there is still no emotion. But things invariably change when a book publisher (Amy Madigan) tells Reese that she inherited some letters - the publisher wishes to publish them. It turns out that Renee is the daughter of a J.D. Salinger-type, Don Holden (Ed Harris) - her own mother had recently passed (Reese chose not to attend the funeral).
Taking the payment up front, Reese travels to Michigan to see her father. Most movies show writers in a sanitized manner. Not Don Holden - he is a stubborn drunk who practically lives in his garage with stacks and stacks of books and papers messily strewn about - he is working on his latest novel which has taken him more than twenty years to write. He is angry at Reese for not attending the funeral, and he is in his own self-imposed cocoon of misery. He does have roomates, though they do not reside in the garage. In the big house, there is Corbit (Will Ferrell), a wannabe musician and devout Christian who occasionally wears eyeliner (!), and Shelley, (Amelia Warner), a former student of Holden's. They are the caretakers of the house.
Reese suspects there is an affair between her father and Shelley, who does everything for Holden. She questions Corbit for not coming on to her. Reese also senses she is not loved by her father and tries to pick up the pieces. Can Reese ever feel anything again, or will emotions rise to the surface and cause harm? Who can say because the film doesn't really go down such a familiar route. Reese goes for frequent drives and tries to find solace at a local bar. But will she find solace ever?
Zooey Deschanel as Reese makes us squirm and anxious, as we try to make peace with her. We hope she can find peace but we don't know if she will ever have closure and move on. Her performance is so good that it made me fidgety and uneasy - I really felt as if Reese jumped out of the screen and I was sharing her experiences. That is high praise indeed, so I will retract my original comment at the start and say that Zooey gives not just a good performance but a great one.
Ed Harris's Holden and Will Ferrell's Corbit could easily lend to ridicule or melodrama, but playwright and debuting director Adam Rapp takes their characters seriously enough. In fact, the whole second half of the film could've been a farce of absurd proportions. Thankfully, even Ferrell plays it straight, particularly when displaying karate moves.
"Winter Passing" is like reading a despairing novel during a winter storm. The setting and the performances remind one of Ingmar Bergman, perhaps "Through a Glass Darkly" without any of the religious discussions about the existence of God. There is one scene in "Winter Passing" that may be cringeworthy for animal lovers but it is an essential scene involving Reese, if you put it in the right context. The film is tough to sit through at first, but its melancholy and melodic tones can be digested albeit slowly. "Winter Passing" doesn't wallow in despair, only Reese does and eventually we get the impression she'll eventually get over it.
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