Winter Passing

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A mopey meditation on family and its dysfunctions, Winter Passing is in fact of more than passing interest.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

It's just OK. Not great. Not awful. Not particularly memorable. Not entirely forgettable. Just OK.

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.

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.

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.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Shockingly, it's an understated but amusing Ferrell who keeps Winter Passing from growing unbearable.

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.

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.

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.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Deschanel manages to make Winter Passing almost matter. That's real talent.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.