Snow Cake Takes It

By Margaret Andrews

The first time I saw Alan Rickman, he played the evil black-haired Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. His aura of eeriness insinuated itself into my soul. When I saw him play the sad and tragic widower in Truly, Madly, Deeply, I still felt the creep factor, even with blond hair. His voice oozes the heebie-jeebies, which is why he’s perfectly cast as Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.

But in Snow Cake, Rickman’s tragic Alex Hughes, finally breaks through that creepy barrier and settles into a dark intensity, allowing me to sympathize with, even like him. And maybe it takes more than one of these characters to do it. I saw him play a gentle hairdresser in Blow Dry, and the depressed husband in Love Always, but it’s Snow Cake where his versatility and incredible acting occur to me.

Alex is driving through Ontario on his way to Winnipeg where he reluctantly picks up a chatty young woman, Vivienne, who at first is annoying, but over the hours and miles, grows on him. Just as we get used to this relationship, it is taken away from us in Wawa, Ontario, and traumatizes Alex.

Alex meets Vivenne’s mother, Linda, played by Sigourney Weaver, and Vivienne’s neighbor Maggie, played by Carrie-Anne Moss. Alex develops two very different relationships with the women, partly because Linda is autistic. Poor Alex has some serious baggage, and not solely due to the most recent event. But when you get to know Linda and Maggie, they make for appropriate psycho-therapy vehicles to help him crawl out of his dark hole.

In addition to Rickman’s subtle, but effective acting, the story unfolds with an effortless pace. Any messages about life are exemplified, not preached and I say “well done” to that. In a stroke of small but noted brilliance, a musical toy is employed to tie scenes together and move the story forward. This movie’s creators throw music, sparkles, and snowflakes together to create an underlying optimism amidst tragedy.

Snow Cake might be mistaken for sentimental to those who don’t absorb the dark humor, fresh dialog, and a story that only independent and foreign films get away with. Action-packed it’s not, and as long as you’re okay with that, even you cold-hearted types should enjoy the other aspects of the film offered. However, the easily moved should arm themselves with tissue - I cried when Maggie appears in a doorway carrying garbage bags. Real garbage bags. With garbage in them. But the way she carried them across the room…my eyes are welling up just thinking about it. But maybe that’s just me.

And can someone tell me if this was an editing quirk, an inside joke, or something I missed, but at the beginning of the film, Maggie is on the same bus as Alex, a couple of rows back. It’s a quick shot. He gets off the bus which turns out to be right in front of Linda and Maggie’s house, but Maggie rides on. This happens before they meet, but it is never explained, so what was that for? Some cheap trick to create a lingering thought in our minds? Well, it worked on this reviewer. That’s gonna bug me for the rest of my life now.

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