Winter Passing

Scott Hardie: “It sucked.”

I can understand Will Ferrell sticking his toe into the indie-drama waters to see if there's a future career for him beyond zany comedies, but he's chosen a particular frigid pond to try it. This bleak little character movie is joyless and mostly actionless, which wouldn't be a problem if it were halfway good. Ed Harris seems cramped in his portrayal of an aging eccentric, caged in by the awkward character, while Zooey Deschanel does her best to act at home in a despicable heroine who permanently extinguishes audience sympathy with an act of animal cruelty early in the film. When Ferrell gets a big showy scene near the end, it seems way out of character. Writer-director Adam Rapp has a lot he wants to say about makeshift families and the way we allow ourselves to suffer quietly rather than reach out, but he hasn't figured out how to say it in a way that anybody would want to hear.

− December 15, 2007 • more by Scott • log in or register to reply