WINTER PASSING

US, 2005, 98 minutes. Colour.
Zooey Deschanel, Ed Harris, Will Ferrell, Amelia Warner, Amy Madigan, Dallas Roberts, Sam Bottoms.
Directed by Adam Rapp.

Winter Passing is a portrait of a young woman, played effectively by Zooey Deschanel, reminiscent of the young Debra Winger. We find her adrift in New York, having left home at seventeen, on drugs, wayward, in and out of relationships. She is the daughter of two famous writers.

She is approached by an agent (Amy Madigan) who offers her money for her father’s love letters to her mother. She resists, gets a part in a play – The Winter’s Tale. However, with no prospects, she returns home, finding her father looking bedraggled and aged, with two live-ins, a musician (an eccentric Will Ferrell, though playing low-key) and a former student (Amelia Warner). While she initially clashes with them, she gets the opportunity to understand something of her past, to talk with her father – though he attempts suicide. In digging up the grounds, she finds the letters but also a manuscript by her father.

The drama then resolves itself with the young woman gaining confidence, reconciled with her father, going to back to New York, putting on a performance of the letters.

1. Interesting New York drama? Piece of Americana? The clash of the generations?

2. The New York settings, the streets, apartments, the theatre? The contrast with Michigan? The home, the garage? The musical score?

3. Zooey Deschanel’s performance as Reese? First seeing her in New York, the audition, her performance, her song, being praised, getting the job, appearing in The Winter’s Tale? The performance? With the members of the cast, the older actress? Her relationships? Her life in the apartment? In the bar, being approached by Lori Lansky? The proposal about her mother’s letters? Her not following through? Her change of heart?

4. Reese going back to Michigan, the bus trip (and the encounter with the nun)? Her finding her father living in the garage? Encountering the two live-ins? Corbit? Shelly? The explanations? Their care for her father?

5. The personality of her father, his appearance, unkempt and bedraggled? His difficulty in writing? Retiring to the garage? His appreciation of Shelly and Corbit? The discussions, the memories of her mother, Reese not coming to her mother’s funeral? Her memories of the past, leaving home? The clashes, the insults? Her digging in the garden, finding the letters, the change for her? Finding her father’s manuscript? The fact that he had been writing?

6. Don Holden, his past, his success, people’s admiration? His love for his wife, the letters? His wife’s career? Her death? The funeral and Reese not going? In the house, dependent on Corbit and Shelly? His overdose? In the hospital? The insults, the reconciliation? Hope?

7. Corbit, his eccentricity, music, the eyeliner, his manner of speaking, concern for Don? Shelly, the past student, her own problems, helping Don?

8. The background characters, the world of writing and publishing? The world of theatre?

9. A portrait of a young woman, her struggles, finding herself, family reconciliation?