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Winter Passing

A provocative trip into the soul
By TOM MEEK  |  March 8, 2006
2.5 2.5 Stars
WINTER PASSING: Deschanel gives it a go, but she's playing an unsympathetic, fucked-up chickReese Holden (Zooey Deschanel) is one fucked-up chick. She dumps a kitten in the Hudson River and heads home to Michigan after her mother dies. Not for the funeral, which she missed, but to snag a stash of letters that could bring thousands from a publisher. You see, Reese’s dad (Ed Harris channeling his Pollock persona) is a famous yet reclusive writer à la J.D. Salinger (Reese Holden . . . Holden Caulfield). To accomplish this, she slams her hands in drawers and listens to Christian guitar rock while her dad swills down the whiskey. Such is the depraved world sketched by playwright Adam Rapp, who here makes his directorial debut. Deschanel with her luminous big blues gives the largely unsympathetic role a bold go, but though Rapp reaches for redemption and self-discovery, self-loathing and selfishness loom at every turn. No matter, Winter Passing is a provocative sojourn into the soul. Will Ferrell and Amelia Warner pitch in as resident freeloaders.
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  Topics: Reviews , Will Ferrell, Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel,  More more >
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