SNOW CAKE
SNOW CAKE
We already knew from TRAUMA (2004) that Welsh director Marc Evans has a particular fondness for wrong-footing his audience. With his next film, he goes a step further, using disorienting humour to cast an unexpected light on a deeply reflective story.
Haunted by a troubled past, Alex Hughes (Alan Rickman), an Englishman, is travelling through northern Ontario. When he decides to give a lift to an eccentric hitchhiker, his life is changed forever. Vivienne (Emily Hampshire) is a rebellious young woman dreaming of a career as a writer, who, thanks to her unfailing intuition, sees right through the sombre Alex in an instant. Unfortunately, moments later, an accident occurs in which the girl is killed. Devastated, the man decides to visit the stranger’s mother, Linda (Sigourney Weaver), unaware of the daily struggles she faces.
The wintry Canadian landscape and the intimacy of the small town of Wawa heighten the characters’ sense of isolation. Their relationships develop quietly and with complete emotional honesty, without grand declarations or promises. The film’s unexpected choices are a celebration of individuality and friendship, measured not in words but in small gestures. At its centre are three very different, yet overlapping, outsider worlds: a traumatised mother on the autism spectrum, an introverted fatalist and Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss), a free spirit who lives by her own rules. Their separate paths eventually lead towards a shared place of reconciliation and acceptance.
The film’s emotional credibility comes not only from a screenplay that radiates warmth while carefully balancing humour and drama, but also from the performances. Sigourney Weaver consulted experienced autism researcher Ros Blackburn while preparing for the role. For Alan Rickman, by contrast, the key to playing Alex lay in the character’s bewilderment and his gradual discovery of the challenges and rewards of living alongside someone on the autism spectrum. For that reason, Rickman chose not to immerse himself in research, allowing his responses to Linda’s behaviour to remain as instinctive as possible.
Rickman and Weaver had previously appeared together in the 1999 sci-fi parody GALAXY QUEST; but it was Marc Evans’s comedy-drama that brought their pairing particular recognition among champions of independent cinema. The film screened at the Toronto and Seattle International Film Festivals and opened the 56th Berlinale.
Text: Paula Apanowicz
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