 |
 |
|
|
|
> Winter Passing |
|
|
|
| |
see larger picture
|
|
Staring:
Ed Harris,
Zooey Deschanel,
Will Ferrell,
Darrell Larson,
John Bedford Lloyd
Director:
Adam Rapp
Average Customer Rating:   
List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $4.14
|
|
|
|
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Fox
EAN: 0024543243212
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2006-05-16
Running Time: 98
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 2005 |
|
|
|
Description
Adam Rapp's offbeat film about homecoming and reconciliation features an all-star cast, including Will Ferrell (Old School), Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous, Elf) and Oscar® nominee Ed Harris (1998, Best Supporting Actor, The Truman Show). When a book editor (Academy Award® nominee Amy Madigan ? 1985, Best Supporting Actress, Twice in a Lifetime) offers to buy the love letters of Reese Holden's (Deschanel) parents, Reese must return home to recover them, only to find her widowed dad (Harris) golfing upstairs, sleeping outside, and living with roommates ? a pretty grad student (Amelia Warner) and a quirky wanna-be musician (Ferrell)! As Reese begins to understand her roots, she learns to accept who she's become.
Amazon.com
Reese (Zooey Deschanel, All the Real Girls) is a brusk barmaid/actress, toiling away in the East Village fringe circuit. Her father is reclusive J.D. Salinger-like author Don Holdin (Ed Harris, A History of Violence). Reese hasn't seen him for years. One night after a performance, an editor from a major publishing house (Amy Madigan, Carnivàle), offers $100,000 for the letters he and her late mother exchanged during their courtship. Reese turns her down flat. Eventually, she changes her mind and takes off for rural Michigan to retrieve them. She finds the disheveled, hard-drinking Don living with former student Shelly (Amelia Warner, Quills) and ex-Christian rocker Corbit (a disarmingly straight-faced Will Ferrell). It's a bizarre, if functional arrangement: Shelly cooks the meals, while Corbit serves as security guard. All try to make nice, but the coke-snorting, insult-flinging Reese won't have any of it. She just wants to find the letters and go. This turns out to be trickier than expected, especially once she actually sits down to read them. Directed by and adapted from his two-act play, Adam Rapp's Winter Passing is the kind of well-intentioned independent where longstanding family issues are solved in just a few days (to the gentle strains of Cat Power and the Shins). Nonetheless, it offers the unique opportunity to see Deschanel and Ferrell, Elf's charmingly mis-matched couple, cast against type. As expected, Harris provides solid support, while Warner's clear-eyed Shelly is the true heart of the story. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
|
|
Psychotic, but a good story, 2010-02-08
I feel in love with Zooey Deschanel in this movie. She is oddly promiscuous and psychotic. I love the way the story weaves together and the ending is peaceful.
I wanted to slap all these people, 2009-06-08
Mostly annoying, whiney film about a J.D. Salinger-type character and his whiney, entitled, annoying little brat of a daughter. The eccentricities on display just got on my nerves. Will Ferrell is mildly amusing as a weirdo who lives with the crazy author. Nice indie rock soundtrack, though.
Winter Passing...it gets slower every year., 2008-12-16
This was a wonderful movie! It made a great Christmas present for a friend of mine!! I'd recommend it to anyone. Simply because, anyone can relate to this movie.
The Road to Reality, 2010-07-30
It's dark and disturbing, even excruciating to watch at times, but it's a form of twisted beauty you hardly see in modern films. 'Winter Passing' is probably the most underrated drama I've seen in years as it rides the coattails of truly sensational acting.
It's the story of a self-destructive actress and bartender living in New York City and on the path to nowhere. When presented with the opportunity to make a small fortune, Reese Holdin journeys back to her home state of Michigan in order to retrieve letters written by her parents, both well known authors. Upon arriving at her childhood home, Reese discovers it occupied by a former student of her father's named Shelley (Amelia Warner) and a Christian guitarist named Corbit (Will Ferrell). Her father, meanwhile, has since moved into the garage and taken to drinking in favor of writing. Mother having recently passed away and estranged from her father for years, Reese finds that before she can walk away with the source of a $100,000 payday, she has to fight the better judgment of her conscience... and finally face her corrupted past.
Zooey Deschanel & Will Farrell team up to play much more somber roles than that of their days in 'Elf', and Ed Harris portrays Don Holdin as if he was a close relative of J.D. Salinger (the author most assume this movie was loosely based on). It's a film that will have you singing the blues, but if you're in the right state of mind, you'll be able to appreciate its subtle honesty and painful journey to self-actualization.
It's real in the sense that a person's motivations are not always for the right reasons, but they can lead you right where you belong; real in the sense that at times it can be boring, but even the most seemingly insignificant moments in our lives can have purpose. It's a realistic display of a broken relationship between father and daughter. There's more pain than joy in the resurrected "bond" between Don and Reese Holdin, and though they both made mistakes, you can sympathize with both sides.
A lot of the less than favorable reviews on here talk about the scene with the cat. It didn't bother me any less than the next person, but I do believe it played well into Reese's bitter, detached personality. For positive or negative, that scene certainly did move people. Hopefully some can come to grips with how it fit into the storyline. I don't think the movie should be smitten for that one scene.
* It's worth mentioning that this is the least conventional role I've ever seen Will Ferrell in, and despite his somewhat shy and always neurotic personality as the religious musician, Corbit, he was the only thing close to comic relief in this film. I dare say that it might be the best performance of his career thus far behind only 'Old School' and 'Elf', which may one day be considered among the Y-Generation's classic comedies as it stands.
* Zooey Deschanel is my personal favorite actress (the reason I wanted to see the movie to begin with), and though I haven't seen everything she's been in, I've never seen her in such a rebellious, standoffish role as she was in this movie. Armed with doubts that she could play a convincing Reese, I was proven wrong time and time again. Farrell and Harris were remarkable, but Deschanel made this movie go. Her ability to show vulnerability while maintaining distance between her and the other characters was what made Reese both believable and real. Hats off to Zooey for her performance.
It's not an assault on the senses, nor a thinker of a movie. Take it for what it is. It's a story about four people that find themselves in spending time with each other. Dark, but beautiful.
Grade: A-
I Was Horrified, 2009-12-31
I was horrified to see the Zooey Deschanel character drown a kitten early in the film. I took out the dvd and threw it in the trash. Do not watch this film if you have any human feelings.
|
|
|
|
| |
![The Man with No Name Trilogy [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ue8GNJ3aL._SL75_.jpg "The Man with No Name Trilogy [Blu-ray]"){kind=small}