Best movie of this year hands down!

People are voting emotionally.

best movie i've ever seen.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Winter Passing is a moody and glaucous movie. The emotional ambiance is the real meat, not the story, the dialogs, or even the life lessons you could get out of it, although they are all excellent. This unpassionate symphony is possible only because of the excellent acting, the great script, good soundtrack, solid editing, and probably a director with a vision.Ed Harris is magnificent. His physical acting really is a just portrayal of the body of a chronic drinker. His emotion are raw beneath the cloak of alcohol, and he makes you feel them. Zooey Deschanel is the fundamental piece of this film, introducing us to this world with a depressive and emotional husk of a self-abusing persona. Finally, Will Ferrell surprisingly gives us a really calm performance with only a very sober shadow of silliness coming from the peculiar background of his character.I have nothing negative to say.It's not for everyone, but it's a must as a drama that you might say is family oriented.

I have a great affection for movies that zero in on a particular character's eccentricities. Winter Passing is a movie heads in that direction and then doesn't know what to do with it. We have the characters, they have goofy characteristics and it all just lays there flat. This is one of those slowly pace movies that always seems as if it is aiming at something deep and profound and never quite gets there.The movie stars Zooey Dachenel, an actress that I normally like. Here she does not give her best performance. She plays Reese Holden, the estranged daughter of a once famous novelist who became a teacher, then dropped out of sight and climbed inside a bottle. She doesn't talk to her family anymore and moved away from Michigan to live in New York where she works as a bartender and part-time actress and fills the rest of her time with casual sex, booze, drugs and self-pity. Reese has a hateful manner with everyone that seems born out of insecurity. That might be endearing if it didn't grow irritating to the point of being insufferable.The movie opens with the information that Reese didn't attend her mother's funeral because "she treated me like a mild curiosity". Reese couldn't care less about her family until an editor named Lori Lansky (Amy Madigan) approaches her about acquiring some letters that were written back and forth between her father and her mother. Lansky will pay money for the letters and Reese, after pelting Ms. Lansky with insults and sarcasm, agrees because she needs the money.So, Reese takes a trip back home by bus where she is surprised to find her father does not live in the old house but in a broken-down shack behind it. Her father Don (Ed Harris) is your average drunken writer, a recluse with long white hair who does cute, drunk, recluse things like moving the bedroom furniture out into the back yard. Every corner of the house is littered with so many piles of books that you can't imagine that anyone has actually read all of them Also occupying the house is Corbit (Will Ferrell), Don's bodyguard who asks for I.D. when Reese answers the door and later violently confiscates the camera of a visiting fan and exposes the film before giving it back. The fourth occupant is Shelly, a sweet-natured 23 year-old British women that cooks and cleans for Don and whom - naturally - Reese assumes he is sleeping with. She becomes the butt of most of Reese's hateful comments.Winter Passing has the potential to really be a great character study, but it is too busy being odd and quirky for its own sake. It is too slow and quiet to really gather any momentum. The characters are so busy being quirky that they never have time to emerge as living, breathing souls. With a cast that includes Zooey Daschenel, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan and Will Ferrell, you are fired up for something great but it never really gets there. It is like a great band took the stage but wouldn't stop tuning their instruments and play.

Reese Holden: "I just can't believe this is the same man who told his six-year-old daughter that Christmas was a Republican capitalistic conspiracy created by the Hallmark Corporation and that, if Jesus were alive today he'd be down in Nicaragua rallying the Sandinistas. Grace Away." Actress Reese Holden has been offered a small fortune by a book editor if she can secure for publication the love letters that her father, a reclusive novelist, wrote to her mother, who has since passed away. Returning to Michigan, Reese finds that an ex-grad student and a would-be musician have moved in with her father, who cares more about his new friends than he does about his own health and well-being.The first thing you'll notice in this film is Zooey Deschanel's acting. I know I did, she is just a stunning character actress and only a few people know of her stellar performance here. If only this film was marketed more in the veins of mainstream Hollywood then Zooey might just get the applaud and praise of the movie-going audience. While the script might not pique the interest of some people, and I admit, I am one of them, I gotta say this film worked because of the actors.This is a character driven story and each of the four main characters really got the job done. Its not Zooey Deschanel portraying Reese Holdin, its Reese Holdin as portrayed by Zooey Deschanel. The same goes to Will Ferrell, who yet again strays from his comedic roots and takes on another fine performance as hopeful musician Corbett. He nailed it in Stranger than Fiction and he nailed it again here. Ed Harris who plays Reese's dad, a down and out writer Don Holdin sporting the old man hermit hairstyle. A mighty fine performance from one of the most celebrated actors out there. Then there's Amelia Warner. Can't say I haven't heard of her name before but she sure was impressive here.Winter Passing is one of those dark and moody films about a dysfunctional family so the vibe is really not that jolly when you're watching it. So I guess its up to you if you wanna watch it.

I had no idea what to expect from this one. I love the cast. I've always been a fan of the quietly effective Ed Harris, I think Zooey Deschanel is slowly becoming a more prominent young actress and Will Ferrell, well, he's Will Ferrell!! It's a story of a girl(Zooey) who abandoned her parents who she felt were selfish to live a life as an actress. She ended up struggling and living a life of much unhappiness and despair. One day a publisher approaches her and offers her money for love letters written between her parents(both famous authors) a long time ago before they were famous. So she leaves her rather out of sorts home in New York and heads home to see her father and try to find the letters.When she gets there, she sees her father(Harris) who is older and sort of losing his mind, but glad to see her. She meets an eccentric young musician played brilliantly by Ferrell who lives with her father and a British orphan who was a student of her fathers and now helps take care of him. Deschanel's very closed off and standoffish at first, but living in the not-so-usual living arrangement gives her a fresh look at life. She begins to get to know the likable characters in the house of her father and eventually begins to learn to forgive and move on. She goes back to New York with a different attitude and zest for life and the transformation is a fun one to watch.I felt the direction was great, the character development was well done and the casting, again, was perfect. The only complaints I had with it were it was a bit slow paced and it was far more open ended than I prefer. I would've liked to see more about her life when she moves back to New York, but still a very exceptional movie and worth a rental. If you're looking for a decent, short and well made movie this one's not a bad choice! **Side note: Although Will Ferrell is known for being a wack job, this role really showed even more range on his part. I believe with this movie, he started coming into his own and has made significant strides in his acting repertoire. And that only made the movie even more intriguing to watch.