This movie was pretty slow but after the scene where she drowns the kitten, I had to turn it pff. It was an unnecessary scene.

Good, but could have been great. Solid plot, well directed. Heavy on emotion, relationships and character-based drama. Does overdo the kookiness though. Plus, it leaves a lot of things unresolved, though maybe that's the point.Zooey Deschanel is solid in the lead role. Good to see her in an edgy role for once. She usually plays sweet innocent characters (not that I am complaining though - I loved her in 500 Days of Summer). Here she is a selfish, chain-smoking, cocaine-snorting, foul-mouthed bitch.Ed Harris is superb in the role of the father, though this is to be expected. (He seems to revel in portraying sick/depressed/emotionally scarred characters). Interesting to see Will Ferrell in a dramatic role, and he does OK in it.

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.