Winter Passing is the Virginia Film Society's maiden offering of the semester. First-time director Adam Rapp, who was present for a Q&A session at the screening, emphasized his focus on "character-driven" drama based on his background as a playwright.
True enough, the film revolves around four very lonely people -- the action largely takes place within the confines of a grief-stricken writer's secluded, foliage-wrapped abode in rural Michigan. This is the home of Don Holden (Ed Harris), although we first meet his self-destructive, openly conniving actress daughter Reese (Zooey Deschanel). It is the death of Reese's mother -- plus a book editor's promise of bountiful payment for retrieving her long lost love letters -- that draws the estranged pair together.
Rounding out the quartet are a socially inept ex-rocker, Corbit (an unusually somber Will Ferrell), and Shelley (Amelia Warner), the crisp, competent British student to Don's ex-professor.
Rapp's clear theatrical background both boosts and undermines the audience's ability to empathize with the characters. He recognizes the different tools he has to work with, eloquently acknowledging the need to "trust the image of dialogue and the look over explanation" in film.
Yet, at times, we sense Rapp's over-reliance on the zoom-in function, having equated it with a theater actor's onstage monologue. Early scenes focus relentlessly on Reese in unattractive detail as she lurches between cocaine addiction, a fear of commitment and self-absorption -- in one wrenching scene, she drowns a kitten for which she no longer feels able to be responsible. Aptly termed an "anti-hero" by Rapp, the opening vignette would have been ridiculously self-indulgent in the hands of a less able actress. Fortunately, Deschanel is an artiste whose weary grey eyes never stop conveying layer after layer of emotion.
There is also the matter of dramatic caricature and typecasting in the two housemates -- Shelley as the upper-crust English girl and Corbit as the meek 30-something with the romantic experience of an eighth grader. Rapp, however, is careful to break from necessary exaggeration in theater to reveal likeable, sympathetic nuances through small but meaningful gestures. Shelley briskly cuts up Don's steak for him, while Corbit awkwardly pats Reese's head as she leans against him with easy affection.
The four individuals, who never quite fit together, rattle around in the house like loose peas in a can. Some scenes feel disjointed and pacing is uneven. Yet Reese's tears over her father's hospital bed seem no less abrupt and lacking in foundation. Somehow, this technique is oddly appropriate.
Rapp originally wrote Winter Passing as a play, with all action taking place in one area -- "emotional stories about people in rooms together." Hence, the characters relate to and ricochet off each other in an awkward fashion that may lack realism in situation, but is ample in conveying brutally honest feelings.
Winter Passing is very much an experiment for Rapp and lacks consistency. Reese, however, points out upon reading a rough draft of her father's work that the imperfections are, in their own way, charming.
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