15, 105 mins
According to the poster for Snow Cake, “stopping is sometimes the most important part of the journey”. When his female hitch-hiker is killed in a car crash that leaves him unscathed, Alex (Alan Rickman), a guilt-ridden, ex-con Englishman, visits her mother in a gossipy little town in wintry northern Ontario. She’s Linda (Sigourney Weaver), a “high-functioning” autistic woman with a child-like emotional directness and an obsession for order. Invited to stay with her for the funeral, he ends up having an unlikely affair with her neighbour, Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss).
Marc Evans, having tortured psyches in the thrillers My Little Eye and Trauma, now heals them in this low-key chamber piece in which Alex’s burdened soul (“I don’t have baggage, I have haulage”) is lightened. Considering the cast, it’s disappointing how the film becomes so straightforward and predictable. Rickman’s sardonic prickliness and Weaver’s innocence and tics make up self-conscious turns, with only Moss possessing the kind of naturalness lacking elsewhere; even the snow melts on cue as Alex begins to thaw out.
IAN JOHNS