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Winter Passing
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Adam Rapp
Directed by: Adam Rapp
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 17, 2006
DVD: May 16, 2006
Running Time: 98 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language, some drug use and sexuality
Starring Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrell, Rachel Dratch, Amy Madigan, Amelia Warner, Dallas Roberts, Sam Bottoms, Michael Chernus, and Anthony Rapp
This dramatic comedy examines the fractious reunion of an estranged father and daughter.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
This is the kind of movie routinely dismissed as too slow and quiet by those who don't know it is more exciting to listen than to hear.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Rapp has clearly been influenced by such lyrically disaffected '70s movies as "Five Easy Pieces." He brings out in Deschanel a sense of yearning, an avidity, that hits home.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A classic example of a pedestrian motion picture being lifted out of mediocrity by an arresting lead performance. Zooey Deschanel doesn't just elevate Winter Passing; she carries it.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Rapp's theatrical past is evident throughout: His strongest scenes tend to be those purely character-driven moments when his sharp dialogue takes precedence over any cinematic action. Harris gives another strong performance and Ferrell is great in a comic but low-key role, but this is Deschanel's movie.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
This flawed drama about a self-destructive young actress and her reclusive novelist father has its rewards, mainly in some good performances.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A mopey meditation on family and its dysfunctions, Winter Passing is in fact of more than passing interest.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Playwright Adam Rapp, making his feature debut as writer-director, details the family dysfunction to the point of hyperbole, but over the long haul he rewards one's observation and intelligence and a more interesting story emerges.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
Harris, of course, is in a different league from the rest, and his depiction of the tortured writer is remarkably well-realized, considering the nonspecific yet somehow overly familiar inscrutability of the character. Despite its limitations, there's something appealing about the world Rapp has created.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Deschanel is great, with her feral eyes and Joey Ramone shag haircut, and Ferrell is fantastic. This one's worth the effort to find.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
I found the film borderline bleak, and borderline predictable, at least in its resolution, yet admirable as well. Winter Passing almost always operates on the right side of the border, the full-of-life side where compelling characters live with urgency and intensity.
Boston Globe Ty Burr
Winter Passing plays like two indie movies trapped in one film, and Zooey Deschanel is in the better of them. Will Ferrell is in the other one.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Performances keep the film afloat and focused whenever it threatens to drift. Deschanel, Harris and Warner are ideally cast. You might not think Ferrell would be, but he gives a different performance than I've seen from him.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt
It's just OK. Not great. Not awful. Not particularly memorable. Not entirely forgettable. Just OK.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly James C. Taylor
Winter Passing showcases Rapp's clever, conversational dialogue, while Harris, Deschanel, and Will Ferrell - on hand for comic relief as a Christian rocker turned literary bouncer - breathe life into this whimsical, but ultimately conventional, family drama.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling
Winter Passing is also being called ''the serious Will Ferrell movie,'' but he's not especially serious in it. Put it this way: His character Corbit is one of those movie types who's into ''kar-a-tay,'' which is a joke that must officially die.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
Harris gamely attacks his tortured, cliche-ridden character, but Deschanel, so likably offbeat in "All the Real Girls" and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," comes off as just plain annoying and self-centered.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Shockingly, it's an understated but amusing Ferrell who keeps Winter Passing from growing unbearable.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
There isn't a spark in the familiar emotional situation or a reason to care how these amiably bland characters end up.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
Ferrell and Warner, however, are distractions--the obligatory dose of "eccentricity" thrown in as seasoning to make the real story more digestible. But they serve instead as irritants; too much spice, if you will.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
An odd little movie with artistic aspirations and a bare touch of comedy that offers sights you never expected (nor hoped) you'd see - like Will Ferrell playing it straight (more or less) and Zooey Deschanel drowning an innocent kitten.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Deschanel manages to make Winter Passing almost matter. That's real talent.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Its familiar story of an embittered child's homecoming and confrontation with a parent throws off dramatic sparks, but they never flare into a blaze.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
With the exception of a few unpredictable moments from Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell, Winter Passing finds only cliche as it reaches for profundity.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Winter Passing is full of nice dramatic turns, including one from relative-unknown Amelia Warner as Harris' former student-turned-nanny (and possible lover). What Winter Passing lacks, however, is a reason to exist other than as a dramatic exercise.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
Family drama appears content to present the situation without going for anything remotely close to the emotional jugular. Result is unsatisfying and even dreary, despite some fine work from Zooey Deschanel and a becalmed Will Ferrell.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
The film is so grindingly predictable that I was writing out a full plot synopsis in my notebook before it was half over, though the thick grains of Terry Stacey's photography and Deschanel's understated performance add a little kick to the family-dysfunction paces, and Ferrell's dive-bar rendition of the Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why" is positively riveting. Winter Passing should have been a musical.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Winter Passing is one dull, extended encounter session among hackneyed characters -- although Deschanel gets the most points for almost imitating a human.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad Shiira gave it an8:
Reese(Zooey Deschanel) returns to the scene of the crime, her childhood home, and as she ascends up the curving stairs, we see the father's National Book Award(mom was no slouch either). In films about megalomaniacal artist-type parents, why do the childhood killers always have to be brilliant? A case could be mounted for parental myopia if the end results are masterpieces. You could argue that these creative people had a higher calling and served the greater good. If they sucked, then by all means, Reese, bitch and moan all you like; it was all for nothing that you were treated like one of Daisy's children in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby", like you were invisible. Reese is a whiny cokehead, but it doesn't stop "Winter Passing" from being a pretty terrific film about blaming your parents for everything under the sun. The surrogate family that Don(Ed Harris) assembled to help ward off the loneliness of being widowed, of being left behind, is obviously meant as a replacement for his bitter absentee daughter. Will Ferrell and Amelia Warner helps round out this great ensemble; especially Ferrell, who tones down his dadaist impulses and underplays beautifully.
Andrew G. gave it a9:
I guess it's predictable...but I wasn't trying to predict...I just watched it...and really enjoyed it...Zooey Deschanel is hipnotic and beautiful as always...Harris is really good as always...Will Ferrell is surprisingly perfect...it's worth seeing in the theater...
R. Cunard gave it a4:
This movie reminded me of The Squid and the Whale - messed up writer parents with messed up kids. It was boring, depressing and uninspiring. The only saving grace was the acting. I thought independant movies were supposed to be a little more original. Maybe next time.
