Winter Passing

Reese Holdin (Deschanel) is a depressed bartender/actress living in New York City. She regularly engages in casual sex, cocaine use and self-harm. When a publishing agent (Amy Madigan) approaches her, we learn that Reese is the daughter of a famous author named Don Holdin (Harris) and that her mother, Mary, recently died. Reese did not attend the funeral. The publisher offers Reese $100,000 for a series of letters written between her mother and father at the height of their careers. When Reese learns that the kitten she rescued from the streets is dying of feline leukemia, she drowns it and buys a bus ticket to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to retrieve the letters.

Returning to her childhood home, she finds it occupied by Corbit (Ferrell), a down-and-out Christian musician, and Shelly (Warner), a 23-year-old former student of Don's. Reese's father now lives, writes and drinks in his garage. Reese initially clashes with the doting Shelly (whom she accuses of sleeping with her father) but eventually accepts her after learning of the death of her parents and of Don's support of her during a near-fatal illness endometriosis. She also bonds with the idiosyncratic Corbit, who spurns her sexual advances and has trouble playing guitar and singing at the same time. She feels out of place at home and fights with her father over childhood neglect, stating that her parents gave their typewriters more attention. She eventually finds the box of letters and, reading the emotional communiques, learns to empathize with her estranged parents. Shelly has also read the letters and asks Reese if she intends to publish them. Reese expresses ambiguity over the matter.

Don is still grieving over his wife's death. He keeps the tie she hanged herself with in a dresser in the backyard along with the rest of their bedroom suite, including their bed. He sometimes sleeps in the bed despite the bitter cold of winter. Reese starts to connect with Corbit and Shelly and is honest with her father about her reasons for staying away from the funeral. Soon after, Don overdoses on sleeping pills and Reese finds him unconscious. He recovers in the hospital, where Reese sits by his bed and reads his latest manuscript, Golf, which he had Corbit bury in the yard. The experience helps the father and daughter find closure, and Reese buries the box of letters in place of the novel before returning to New York.

• Zooey Deschanel as Reese Holdin
• Ed Harris as Don Holdin
• Will Ferrell as Corbit
• Amelia Warner as Shelly
• Mary Jo Deschanel as Mary
• Amy Madigan as Lori Lansky
• Michael Chernus as Ben
• Deirdre O'Connell as Deirdre
• Anthony Rapp as Dean
• Jim True-Frost as Dr. Staley
• Sam Bottoms as Brian
• Rachel Dratch as Female MC

Some film critics have voiced suspicions that one or more of the film's characters are based on famous people. New York Times film and music critic Stephen Holden suggests J.D. Salinger, Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Ted Hughes and Ernest Hemingway as possible bases for Reese's parents.[1] Film critic Roger Ebert suggests Frederick Exley as the most likely basis for Don's character.[2]

Winter Passing is the only film to date known to speak of Traverse City, Michigan. It was included in the 2006 Traverse City Film Festival for this reason, winning an award for "Best Use of the Words Traverse City in a Feature Film."[3]

Roger Ebert rated the film at 3.5 out of 4 stars, lauding it for balancing sadness, loneliness, humor and affection. He stated: "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."[2]

• Winter Passing at IMDb
• Winter Passing at AllMovie
• Winter Passing at Rotten Tomatoes