Snow Cake - a little dvd review

I kept seeing the preview for this movie on other DVDs and something about it intrigued me, and it was the perfect movie to watch Friday night. I was exhausted when I crawled into bed with my laptop and my headphones.

Alan Rickman blew me away as a random person with shady past dropped by circumstance into the tiny town of Wawa, Ontario. I haven't followed his career or anything, but he fit the role so well, I think that maybe it was the role he was born to play.

Rickman's Alex Hughes had picked up a young hitch hiker, and just before they arrive in her hometown, they're hit by a truck, and the girl is killed. Driven presumably by his own demons, Alex feels compelled to stick around and pay his respects to the mother, Linda. Sigourney Weaver plays Linda, the autistic mother coping with the death of Vivienne, who was both her child and companion. I don't know if I've ever seen or even heard a story about an autistic adult, so this was really refreshing, and I didn't find it predictable or cheesy at all. I'm not sure I bleieved too much in Carrie-Ann Moss as the seductive neighbor, but Alan Rickman's reactions were great.

If you haven't figured it out, I liked dramas that take place is cold, isolated places. So, this fits that bill. It also sounded good - with a lot of songs and scoring by Broken Social scene and conspicuous inclusion of TWO Welsh rock bands, Stereophonics and Super Furry Animals.

And if anyone finds a recording of the Japanese folk song,"Notteru Ondo" that's featured in a couple scenes of the film, let me know.