credit: www.amazon.com
Director:
Adam Rapp
Cast:
Ed Harris …. Don Holdin
Zooey Deschanel …. Reese Holdin
Will Ferrell …. Corbit
Amelia Warner …. Shelley
20th Century Fox presents Winter Passing. Written by Adam Rapp. Running Time: 98 minutes. Rated R (for language, some drug use and sexuality)
The Movie:
Garden State didn’t cross any new ground in storytelling or filmmaking, but it sure did open up the gateway for a slew of independent films about coming home. Some of them have been good (Junebug) some… not so much (Elizabethtown). Winter Passing falls under the good category.
Reese Holdin (Deschanel) is a struggling actress in New York. A journalist comes to her offering her $100,000. See, both her parents are famous authors and her mom recently committed suicide. While they were courting they wrote love letters back and forth to one another. The journalist wants to publish the letters, which were left to Reese in the will. Reese says no at first but when she runs out of coke money she agrees.
When she arrives home she finds that her father, Don Holdin (Harris) is living in the garage and living in the house is Shelley (Warner), an old student of Don’s, and Corbit (Ferrell), a shy guitarist who used to play in a Christian rock band.
Things are tense right off the bat, Reese doesn’t care about the new roomies and Don is a shell of man who is still suffering from the loss of his wife. Reese finds the letters and starts to read them. Her time at her father’s house gives her time to get to know Shelley and Corbit and slowly they get past their differences and become friends. Everyone grows and… well no more information for you.
This is a great little film by first time writer/director Adam Rapp. Each of the characters is fully developed and interesting and everyone gives stellar performances. Will Ferrell is great as Corbit, he shows that he doesn’t need to be acting crazy and jumping around to be funny. In this film he is quiet, he is subtle and he’ll still make you laugh out loud. Yes, he’s funny, but he also has serious moments, like a great many comedians before him he proves that he can act. Let’s only hope we see more of this from him in the future.
STORY: 7/10
ACTING: 9/10
LOOK/FEEL: 8/10
ORIGINALITY: 7/10
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 9/10
TOTAL POINTS: 40/50
FINAL SCORE: 8/10
The DVD:
The Video:
The film is presented in both full screen and widescreen formats (one on each side). The transfer is great and cinematographer Terry Stacey’s work is preserved nicely.
The Audio:
The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and while there isn’t tones of fancy sound work going on in this film what there is sounds good.
Special Features:
Uh… not a lot going on here.
You get a “Behind The Scenes” featurette that’s less than 10 minutes long. The actors each say a little about their characters but it’s nothing profound or new.
Score: 1/10
