Snow Cake
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Movie Reviews of Snow Cake
Movie Review: Snow Cake
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this movie! Alan and Sigourney play off of each other so well. Sigourney Weaver should have won some award and there is a sexy Alan scene too.Movie Review: Snowcake
Summary: 5 Stars
A lovely, surprisingly funny film. Beautifully written and performed. Mr Rickman is especially truthful and sensitive in his role.Movie Review: A most unusual film
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a unique inquiry into the life of an autistic adult. Sigorney Weaver must have done deep research to get this just right.Movie Review: Snow Cake
Summary: 5 Stars
Was an excellent movie, giving a rare insight as to what an adult could be like. In most situations we only see younger children.Movie Review: 'Snow' Takes the Cake
Summary: 4 Stars
An interesting study of the human psyche that pushes all the buttons of its viewers with room to spare, "Snow Cake" is an eye-opening, life affirming experience in the form of an indie film. Marking the screenwriting debut of Angela Pell, it was directed by Marc Evans and screened to heavy fanfare at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and is at last available on DVD for a wider audience to appreciate.
Fresh off a four year prison stint for a mysterious murder charge, Alex Hughes, played by the fantastic Alan Rickman, is a docile, middle-aged Englishman on the way to Winnipeg, Canada. Not receptive to company after a long plane ride, he is approached in a diner by Vivienne, a young woman with a bubbly personality played by Emily Hampshire. Chatty and extroverted, she invites herself to sit down at his table and tells him all about herself. He is not in the mood to chat, but begrudgingly lets her bum a ride in his truck.
During their trip she eventually gets him to open up, and they establish a lovely rapport. Unfortunately, near the end of their journey they are rammed by a tractor trailer and Vivienne is killed instantly. Rattled and wholly devastated at her loss, Alex is compelled to contact her mother, Linda, played with unprecedented skill by Sigourney Weaver, to explain what happened as well as deliver gifts Vivienne bought.
When he meets Linda, he discovers that she is a high-functioning autistic woman who barely strays from her home and has a myriad of obsessions, among them cleanliness ("Don't go in my kitchen!"), her trampoline and, strangely, snow. Nonetheless upset at her daughter's death, she is inhibited by her disease which tempers her outward devastation. He tries to apologize, but she sees no need for one.
"Did you do it in purpose?" she asks him.
"No, of course not, we just..."
"Then sit down then! I haven't got a problem with you - you must be alright because you gave Vivienne a lift, and you brought me my sparklies!" she says as she plays with them excitedly.
Linda persuades him to stay to assist her with funeral arrangements and put out the garbage on Tuesday ("I don't do garbage!"), as her parents are hiking in the mountains and cannot be reached to come to her assistance. Little does Alex know that he is embarking what are likely to be the defining days of his life.
He becomes involved with Linda's beautiful though equally mysterious neighbor Maggie, played by Carrie-Anne Moss, and is viewed with a watchful eye by the local townspeople, most particularly Clyde, a local police officer with eyes for Maggie played by James Allodi who digs into his troubled past. Getting to know more about Vivienne and her life, Alex learns even more about himself in the process.
"Vivienne wanted to be a writer," Linda tells him. "She said she would always try and get a ride with the most lonely looking characters because they had the best stories." As it turns out, it is her own death that proves the turning point in Alex's own story. A man trying to escape his past, he soon realizes through his experiences that the only way he can move on with his life is to confront his demons head on.
Rickman is positively endearing, with an innate ability to make viewers care for his protagonist, and Weaver's nuanced, challenging performance is simply a marvel of acting dexterity. Although she plays the kind of woman most go out of their way to avoid interacting with, she fully humanizes Linda and brings the viewer into her own little world where emotions are blunt and eating snow is a thrilling occasion. An unlikely angel, she facilitates Alex's need to move on to the next chapter of his life.
"Snow Cake" is certainly offbeat, but it is a deeply affecting film made to linger on the viewer's palette long after its viewing. Cutting right to the heart of human nature and the discordance of life, it is beautiful in its frankness and honesty.