A slow-burning examination of disability and grief is enlivened by a top-notch cast and a gently witty script.
Snow Cake (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 58
Fresh: 38
Rotten:20
Average Rating: 6/10
Consensus: Sigourney Weaver gracefully undertakes a difficult role, while the rest of the cast lifts the histrionic plot into something worthwhile.
Theatrical Release: 08-09-2006
Synopsis: Alan Rickman has a made a career of stealing scenes in supporting roles, but he takes the lead in SNOW CAKE. Whether he's playing Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movie or the voice of God in DOGMA, Rickman provides a fascinating combination... Alan Rickman has a made a career of stealing scenes in supporting roles, but he takes the lead in SNOW CAKE. Whether he's playing Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movie or the voice of God in DOGMA, Rickman provides a fascinating combination of dry wit and gravitas that also serves him well here. Flanked by Carrie-Anne Moss and Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver, Rickman's performance provides the core of this character-driven drama. Though Weaver's best roles are as strong and independent women in films like the Alien quadrilogy and WORKING GIRL, she's fascinating to watch in her role as an autistic woman. Rickman plays Alex Hughes, a lonely man driving to Winnipeg to meet someone from his past. Along the way, he meets a spunky young woman named Vivienne who is desperate for a ride home to her mother. But a car accident leaves Vivienne dead and Alex full of guilt, and he goes to the small town of Wawa, Ontario, to meet Vivienne's mother. In Wawa, he discovers that her mother, Linda (Weaver), is an autistic woman. She convinces him to stay for a few days, and he meets her beautiful neighbor, Maggie (Moss). With the help of Linda and Maggie, Alex may be able to move beyond his troubled history. SNOW CAKE isn't for those who need an elaborate plot or explosions. Instead, it's a rewarding drama for adults that also features a great soundtrack from Broken Social Scene, Feist, Super Furry Animals, and the Stereophonics. [More]
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Hampshire
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Hampshire, James Allodi, Callum Keith Rennie, David Fox, Jayne Eastwood, Mark McKinney
Director: Marc Evans
Director: Marc Evans
Screenwriter: Angela Pell
Producer: Gina Carter, Andrew Eaton, Niv Fichman
Studio: IFC Films
Reviews for Snow Cake
The Canada-set Snow Cake is clearly meant to be Weaver’s movie, and people with first-hand knowledge of autism say it’s the most convincing depiction they’ve ever seen.
Ultimately, [Snow Cake] is the sort of film that creeps up on you and you don't realise how much it has affected you till you find yourself still thinking about it days later.
Thoughtful and moving, this intriguing drama is packed with emotions and insights that catch us off guard.
A deeply moving, life-affirming tale -- the many scathing one-liners are just icing on the cake.
Screenwriter Angela Pell clearly has something to say about the way autism brings clear-sighted lack of prejudice and a childlike innocence, albeit often masked by seemingly irrational needs and drives.
If Rickman these indignities like a man with his mind on other things, he's probably just shell-shocked by the antics of his co-star. Weaver's performance is so extravagantly awful, you can't take your eyes off it.
Often with the feel of a stage play, Snow Cake is a delicate little drama that shows real understanding of its characters.
a worthy effort toward bringing an increasingly prevalent disorder to filmgoers' attention
Snow Cake never entertains too much pathos nor does it become overly concerned with making Weaver’s character even slightly sympathetic; her uncensored forthrightness is as refreshingly humane as it is hilarious.
Everyone and everything is surprising in this arresting film whose heart is as warm as its setting is cold
in the end, it's as viable as its titular confection: pretty to look at but cold.
It's essentially a vehicle for a dedicated cast, but occasionally it's more than that.
Three very intelligent actors -- Rickman, Moss and Sigourney Weaver -- elevate what could have been cloying into something better than the script's idiosyncratic bent.
Director Marc Evans, working from Angela Pell's screenplay, pulls it off in a limited way but with emotional sensitivity and a solid cast.
At times it seems so anxious to blatantly manipulate us into tears and slows down with Alex’s romance with a sexy neighbor a la Carrie Anne Moss, and then at times it’s beautiful, and intimate, and so wonderfully acted.
Weaver makes Linda her own, alternating between off-putting brashness, engaging honesty and bursts of spontaneous, childlike behavior.
Weaver and Rickman and screenwriter Angela Pell elevate the film into something quite endearing.
Latest News for Snow Cake
April 28, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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April 26, 2007:
Critical Consensus: This Film Is "Condemned"; "Next" Vexes; Guess "Invisible," "Kickin' It" Tomatometers!
This week at the movies, we've got clairvoyants ("Next," with Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore), cons ("The Condemned," starring Steve Austin and Vinnie... More...
April 24, 2007:
Compassionately delves into the immense frustration, heartbreak and even intermittent comic relief of life with autism, while touching on the sometimes emotionally crippling condition of just being alive, for the rest of us. ![]()
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