A different way of telling a story

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Starts off dull, and ends that way, too. In between, not a heckuva lot happens either.Girl has been estranged from her writer father for years, and sees a chance to make money off him, pays him an awkward visit, which last 2/3 of movie, and then, well, like I said, not much happens.Actually, movie had some funny parts, NEITHER involving the main characters, but involved her father's living arrangements. Now THAT was rather humorous, I found.Lead character girl, while not a sleazebag, was very unlikable, and not the type of person you'd root for, nor even care if her part ended twenty minutes after movie started.Waste of time, and would NEVER see it again.

Review: I quite enjoyed this movie, although it was a bit slow in the beginning and it doesn't really pick up until Will Ferrell and Ed Harris come into the picture. It's quite a deep drama that deals with a relationship between a father and daughter. All of the characters put in good performances, but it's Will Ferrell that makes the movie. His characters is extremely funny, in a serious way, and Ed Harris also went out of his way to make his character believable. The main character, Zooey Deschanel, has a unemotional way of acting, which works in this movie and makes the movie what it is. In all the second half was an emotional journey but the first half was a bit all over the place. Watchable!Round-Up: This movie was made before Will Ferrell was known for his silly lines and phrases, which is why I was looking forward to watching the film. He isn't doing his usual shouting and cracking silly jokes throughout the movie which was why it suited the whole tone of the film. I even enjoyed the student that was living in the house with them, who also suited the weird and mysterious world that they created in the house. It's just a shame that they never concentrated on the whole family except for just the main character who was pretty dull in places. Budget: $3.5million Worldwide Gross: $114,000 (Terrible!)I recommend this movie to people who are into there comedy/drama that deals with the lose of a family and how it effects a husband and daughter. 4/10

Ah, another tale of a lost, disaffected young person that fruitlessly tries to fill their empty life with empty sex and drugs, and the family dynamics that led them to become that way. You know how these stories go. By the end, there's always some kind of acceptance and catharsis, and the characters end up with better relationships than when they started. Since most family dramas begin and end in somewhat the same manner, it's that middle journey that makes or breaks them, for me. How and why do the characters change?Winter Passing largely skips right over the how and why. For 90% of the movie Zooey Deschanel's and Ed Harris's characters are one way, and then in the last ten minutes they are suddenly completely different. I was so confused that I went back to check and see if I had unknowingly missed some crucial plot points or character development, but I hadn't. The viewer is actually expected to believe that these characters undergo profound and drastic changes as a result of about two brief conversations and a hospital visit. It's like they took a vague idea of a plot, and then filled in the runtime with melancholy gazing out of windows and lots of slow cigarette smoking. As for the other two main characters, they never really contributed anything of substance to the story. I suppose Amelia Warner's character was included to provide some initial friction for Reese and offer her another insight into her father's personality, and she looked so beautiful doing it that I'm willing to cut her some slack. But Will Ferrell's character was completely unnecessary. All he did was add forced quirkiness to a movie that absolutely did not need it. It didn't even fit the tone, and his sub-plot was a pointless way to pad out the running time.I didn't hate Winter Passing, I just thought that its story needed a lot more thought, focus, and fleshing out. It feels incomplete. Family drama is among the most character driven genres, and they just don't work well without strong and well-defined character arcs.

Zooey is one of the few positive things about the film. She did a nice job with the one-dimensional part that was written for her.The film's pacing seemed a bit off and some scenes were tedious. An emotional attachment for the protagonist and rooting for her success never seemed to get off the ground before Reese proved she was not worthy of such an emotional connection.I probably could have forced myself to stay with it a little longer but the gratuitous drowning of the kitten pretty much wrapped it for me. After that, I could have cared less if a bus ran over Reese.I'm thinking that this is just a great message to send to the witless wonders of the world that it's okay to toss a kitten into the river instead of taking it to a shelter or veterinarian to have it humanely euthanized.The more I think about it the more I dislike the movie.Hopefully, one day Rapp will mature and comprehend how much film influences the masses and choose not to promote animal cruelty.