UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
Sharkflei
Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.
Howlin Wolf
Quick physics analogy here. (although I hate the discipline!) Imagine a family consisting of three forces pulling in opposite directions. What's gonna happen? Whatever exists between them is gonna start to show cracks, right? Well, even if this little scientific postulation of mine turns out to be incorrect, it still handily applies to the meditation on grief that "Winter Solstice" offers. If they were united as a group, they would be much stronger, but with the huge space vacated by a missing figure, they become a ship without a rudder.Fans, like me, of Lapaglia, Stanford or David Gordon Green's "All the Real Girls" should definitely come away from this with some food for thought. There are echoes of "In the Bedroom", too. Admirers of any mentioned will be pleasantly acquainted with the pace this film moves at as this is not a work for those who like their cinema to run loud, obvious and at a mile a minute. If low-key indie musing is your thing though, then I would suggest you check it out. It's content not to milk its material for moments of angst, so there are few showy moments for the actors. Suppressed anger is the main vent for hidden depths, so it could have been more 'raw', but taken together it nevertheless builds to something that is genuinely affecting.
janet-55
This is a very low-key film in which the action is inaction. LaPaglia's character, Jim Winters, in particular lives in the silences between the sounds. The film is redolent with the ghosts of unsaid words therefore as the viewer one must approach this film with the knowledge and appreciation that this is intended as a thought-provoking piece of cinema and so has no really big bursts of emotion. All the cast act beautifully, but as one has come to expect of Anthony LaPaglia he is outstanding. He plays a widower who after five years has still not come to terms with his bereavement, and as a result, though seemingly living an ordered day to day existence, in reality he finds it increasingly difficult relating to life in general and specifically to his two teenage sons. LaPaglia's portrayal is subdued and masterful; I don't think I know of any other actor who can so eloquently inhabit a role by apparently doing so little - definitely this is a case of art concealing art. This is a sensitive and rewarding film. And for all those guys out there who want this film to have some male endorsement, my husband liked the film very much when I asked him to watch it over Christmas, so it must be good.
hillary2008
They are making just tooooo many movies these days. At least it wasn't a recycled 60's sitcom or comic book. Pointless beyond description. Wanted to shoot myself 30 minutes into it. If I ever meet Anthony LaPaliga I'm gonna demand my $7 back. A coming of age saga? Please. Go rent Breaking Away. Loser brother "A" gets into a fight at the quickie mart for? Loser brother "B" drives around in a clapped out Datsun B210 and dreams of sleeping on someones couch in Tampa? The best part of this sublime piece of !@#$ is when dad throws their beds out on the lawn for the night. Allison Janney is wasted. Anthony LaPaliga has done better. Will do better. Can anyone say "Mulligan?"
jdesando
As metaphors go towards reflecting character, this one is a good as it gets: Gardens "fall apart pretty quickly, and you have to take care of them." In Winter Solstice, Jim Winters' (Anthony LaPaglia) family needs plenty of care as it recovers from the loss of his wife and the two boys' mother. That piece of debut writer/director Josh Sternfield's dialog is reminiscent of Miles' discourse about pinot noir in Sideways--T. S. Eliot's "objective correlative" describes the state of the characters.In the Seinfeld mode, but without the humor, Winter Solstice is about nothing; little happens to set up traditional Greek rising and falling actions. It is profoundly about getting through without letting mom's death freeze you in sorrow. That older son Gabe (Aaron Stanford) plans to leave New Jersey for Florida is just another disappointment. That son Pete (Mark Webber) is a summer school regular hiding a bright mind must be endured until he emerges from his winter.Jim does as well as can be expected keeping his family whole. As for himself, his landscaping business keep him alive with the artistic promise of more beautiful flowers and the humanistic comfort of working with people and getting to know new temporary neighbor, Molly Ripkin (Allison Janney).The simplicity of the days coupled with the minimalism of dialog and plot defines this small movie, which executive produce LaPaglia must have known wouldn't make any money. But he made it, as he did the estimable Lantana, for reasons that may be tied to the garden analogy, taking care to be more than a TV star. As Gabe says about leaving his fine girlfriend behind, "That's my problem, and I'm dealing with it." I admire father, son, and director's ideals—they give us interesting small films such as Winter Solstice. As Shakespeare's Richard says in King Henry VI, Part iii, "I, that did never weep, now melt with woe/That winter should cut off spring-time so."
