Snow Cake

Snow Cake ***1/2

Directed by Marc Evans
Written by Angela Pell

Starring:
Alan Rickman as Alex Hughes
Sigourney Weaver as Linda Freeman
Carrie-Anne Moss as Maggie
David Fox as Dirk Freeman
Jayne Eastwood as Ellen Freeman
Emily Hampshire as Vivienne Freeman
James Allodi as Clyde

112 Minutes(Not Rated-Language, Sexual Content, Disturbing Image)
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"Snow Cake" is a mini-masterpiece that is ultimately sweet and effective. Taking on the disease of autism, made famous in the late 80's with "Rain Man," "Snow Cake" manages to avoid being a copy of that film by actually creating unique and different characters, even if the situations are similar. Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver are brilliant in their roles and even together, as they play off each other perfectly in any scene that they are in.

"Snow Cake" tells the story of Alex Hughes, a man who just got out of prison and is on his way to Winnipeg for unknown reasons. While in a coffee shop he stumbles upon Vivienne, a young woman in the the need of a ride. On the car rides, which Alex reluctantly agrees to, the two of them form a small bond, which comes to an abrupt end when a truck violently slams into the car, killing the girl but leaving Alex without a scratch. Alex is not being blamed, but for his own sake of mind he goes to visit Linda, Vivienne's mother. When he arrives he learns that she is autistic-she lives by herself and has a job working as a shelf stocker at a supermarket, but she isn't able to be completely independent. She responds to her daughters death with a dead face, and realizes that she won't ever see Vivienne again but probably doesn't fully understand why. She is more concerned with the upcoming Tuesday, when she has to take the garbage out. That was Vivienne's job, so Alex agrees to stay until Tuesday. He has to follow her rules, can't stay in her kitchen, but eventually he starts a connection with Maggie, a girl next door who Linda believes in a hooker. Alex begins to try and let go of his guilt, and his past demons start to beckon him when he can't but help to realize a parallel between why he killed this man in the past, and what happened to Vivienne.

The "Snow Cake" script manages to avoid being a simple soap opera of Alex and Linda, but becomes an engaging, warm, and humorous story of getting over guilt and living in the present moment. And although Rickman is good, it is Weaver who once again steals the show. Between this and "The TV Set" she is having a very good month. Weaver brings a certain amount of energy to the role that is needed, and she is extremely convincing when Alex brings joy to her by giving her a bunch of little balls that sparkle. Carrie-Anne Moss may be the only films weakness-not because of her presence but simply because of her character. There is not much use for her, and it is a somewhat forced love story, but the film cannot all be just Alex and Linda, however entertaining those scenes are. One in particular is when they are playing Scrabble, and Linda calls it "Superhero Work Scrabble," so that words can be made up, and existing words like "Bang" can be spelt "Baang." By the end of "Snow Cake" I felt a little happier than I did walking in. Made with a budget of next to nothing, director Marc Evans finds it able to make something beautiful out of a stark white landscape, and finds great performances in all of his actors. This a sweet little gem, both heartbreaking and happy at the same time. I loved this film.