Snow Cake in International Film Festival

The film industry has produced its share of one-note movie plots involving isolated, lonely drivers who pick up hitchhikers, only to be led down a path of predictable terror and suspense. Films like these, including The Hitcher and Natural Born Killers, send the message that we shouldn’t trust hitchhikers and only doom will follow once the wandering road-side stranger is invited to sit in the passenger’s seat. But then there’s Snow Cake, Marc Evans’ 2006 film that will be shown as part of the 2007 Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival. This small gem of a movie from Canada, starring Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, and Carrie-Ann Moss, may start off looking like a typical hitchhiking road movie, but soon turns out to be anything but.

You can see Snow Cake as part of the Minneapolis/Saint Paul Film Festival. It will be shown at St. Anthony Main on Saturday, April 28th at 9:15 pm. This is one of a series of reviews of films in the festival.

Evan’s quiet drama begins when Alex (Rickman, in a consistent, understated performance) is driving through Ontario and offers a ride to Vivienne—a vivacious, spunky 19-year-old whose life ambition is to write novels. Their new-found friendship is cut short due to a tragic car accident which leaves Vivienne dead and Alex unharmed. It is at this moment that Alex’s real journey begins.

Full of guilt for walking away injury-free (this is also coupled with Alex’s past—he was recently released from prison), Alex feels compelled to seek out Vivienne’s mother, Linda (brilliantly played by Sigourney Weaver, one of her generation’s best talents). Upon meeting Linda, Alex learns Linda is autistic and was waiting for Vivienne to return home. The two immediately juxtapose each other—Linda is full of words and energy yet due to her autism seems emotionless regarding Vivienne’s death (when a neighbor offers an “I’m sorry for your loss” condolence, Linda matter-of-factly replies “I didn’t lose her…she died.”); Alex is so full of grief and guilt that he doesn’t know where to begin in expressing his feelings. Alex has shown up to offer his condolences and leave, but upon meeting Linda decides to stay and help out with the funeral.

What follows is a wonderful portrait of two people who need and help each other in numerous, unexpected ways. Through Linda’s quirkiness and creativity, Alex is able to once again smile and appreciate the small things in life. One memorable scene involves the two playing Scrabble (a unique version Linda and Vivienne often played—-all words must be made up and used in a sentence). After Alex’s challenge on Linda’s creation of the word ‘dazzlious,’ he is given an elaborate explanation through a touching fairy-tale Linda creates where the land looks dazzlious. After hearing her convincingly heartfelt story, I wouldn’t have been surprised myself if the Webster’s Dictionary didn’t have dazzlious in its next edition.

For a few brief days, Alex is a part of Linda’s world, which in turn helps him with his own. One of Linda’s neighbors, Maggie (Carrie-Ann Moss from the Matrix trilogy) befriends Alex and the two create an intimacy that they clearly have been craving for some time—only now do they both feel they are entitled to partake in such a human connection. It is also through Maggie that we are given more insight into the community of Wa-Wa, the small Canadian town coping with the loss of Vivienne. The majority of the films’ scenes are isolated between the three major characters, so we truly count Maggie to represent what the town of Wa-Wa is feeing.

Marc Evans does a wonderful job in creating the somber, quiet mood that Snow Cake requires. Long, panoramic shots of the crisp, Canadian mornings are not accompanied by music but rather left to silence. Even in the scenes with dialogue, conversations are kept to a minimum which allows Linda’s character to stand out all the more. As an adult with autism, she has learned to live and take care of herself but not necessarily express emotion verbally. In a unique way, Alex’s silent presence compels her to speak and articulate what she is feeling.

Evans may have chosen a minimal music score, but he makes up for that by including a great soundtrack. Canadian indie pop and folk is used throughout the film, which fits nicely, especially when it’s integrated as an artery of Vivienne’s character. At the funeral, the congregation is treated to recordings of Vivienne’s favorite tunes, instead of the usual hymns.

Snow Cake stays with you. Through the encounter with such believable, struggling characters, the viewer is challenged to think about coping with loss, grief, and moving on. Certain character elements could have used a bit more attention (it took a while to convince me of Alex’s justifiable rage, and I don’t think we were shown enough of Linda’s relationship with her parents), and certain elements of the plot were explained a bit too neatly, especially the story of how Linda became pregnant with Vivienne (a distracting yet necessary piece of information that we don’t learn about until the 11th hour).

Minimal plot issues aside, Snow Cake is one of those independent films that has more depth and emotion than 99% of Hollywood productions. After viewing it, I couldn’t help but immediately think of another small, quiet film from Canada, 1997’s The Sweet Hereafter, directed by Aton Egoyan that resonates with me still today. I believe Snow Cake will have a similar long-lasting impact. Marc Evans has created a film that makes you think you know the direction its headed in (thanks, hitchhiker plots!), yet successfully offers up the fact that regardless of what road you are traveling on, the meeting of a vibrant, cheerful stranger can bring you to grief, sadness, and the unknown, but ultimately….to a better place than where you were before.

-Stephen Sporer works at Macalester College and has reviewed films for KTFM 102.7, San Antonio’s #1-rated radio station. He recently moved to the Twin Cities from New York where he worked, studied theater at Sarah Lawrence College, and acted and sang in a wide range of venues.