Alex (Alan Rickman) has just gotten out of prison for killing somebody. He's driving to Winnipeg for an unknown reason. In a roadside dinner, Vivienne (Emily Hampshire) talks her way into hitching a ride in Alex's car. Then they get into an accident and Vivienne is killed. Alex searches out her mother Linda (Sigourney Weaver) who turns out to be autistic. He decides to stay to help, and gets to know the neighbor Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss).This starts off so interestingly. I love the chemistry between Emily Hampshire and Alan Rickman. They could have got emotionally deep. When she dies, it left a huge hole in the movie. It's a hole that Sigourney Weaver cannot hope to fill. In fact, I think the movie would actually be more interesting with the three characters together. Having only Linda and Alex alone seems very empty. The emotional connection between the two is too difficult. Quite frankly, I can't even tell if Sigourney Weaver is doing it right.

Let me say, just up front, that when I watched this on television I was almost compelled to switch channels.I simply don't like romantic or sentimental (tear-jerking) movies.But it was a slow night, nothing else to watch, except the same-o, same-o cop drama here and there,... so I braced myself for a boring and well-planned travel through sentimental-land, with all the buttons pushed at the right time, to force you to squeeze your tear ducts in your eyes.Mind you, I like everything that has Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver or Carrie-Anne Moss, in it, but I was wondering why these three would congregate to make a "romantic drama".At first, at the opening of the movie (a bit slow-paced for my taste), nothing new on the western horizon. Nice landscape, a diner and two odd characters meeting (one of them being Alan Rickman). Location? Canada. Season? Well, you may have guessed by the title, that it might be winter. Snow? Yes.A brief conversation, or better said, monologue of the two characters ensues. So far, so good.One might think at this point that that's it. Older man meets much younger woman and a pathetic story gets told once again. Wrong!What happens next, within the ten minute rule of movie-land (if nothing happens within a ten minute span, you can leave the theater or the room and switch off the TV). Well, as I was about to do so, lo and behold, Bang! Big Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang!A car crash! In a movie like this? Yes. A huge truck rams the man's car and this is the actual beginning of the picture.The rest unfolds while we accompany the man's ordeal through it all.Let me just say that if you think to have known Sigourney Weaver as an actress before, well, think again... If you haven't seen her work in this movie, you simply cannot appreciate the great professional talent she has and the true gamut she can span when allowed to do so.Of course, she already revealed herself as a very skillful comedian in "Galaxy Quest" (also co-starring with Alan Rickman), but here she hits the high note of her entire career, blasting all the crystals in the house.She portrays and reproduces an autistic woman in every detail. So much so, that at times it becomes disturbing. It must have been the most difficult role she ever played. I am thinking about the research she had to undertake in order to slip in her role. I was astonished and very pleasantly surprised by her.Carrie-Anne Moss, is the romantic interest of Alan Rickman in this movie and one may believe that this is it... Again wrong! The woman can sparkle with just a few nuances, without ever stealing the show, but just because of this, she becomes an important and integral figure to the plot, without whom the outcome would be difficult to foresee. Her harsh traits, so well known in the "Matrix" movies, can reveal an astonishing feminine beauty, as well as a smile and a laughter that can carry you away to seventh heaven.Alan Rickman, the face of stone, or is it? I love him in everything he does. His wry, slashing, straight-face humor is simply unique and can be admired in so many movies. In "Snow Cake" he pushes the envelope further, always with very subtle touches, just like a few twitches of the eyes, a dismissing raising of an eyebrow, a touch of disappointment with the corner of the mouth. One has to closely watch the mechanics of his face to understand what a refined actor this man is.What can I say of Emily Hampshire, except maybe that she will make a terrific career for herself along the years? It is not easy to be the center of a movie without being in it throughout the story. Yet, this is exactly what she manages to do. Her looks, the way she played her role, the entire aura that she manages to broadly paint before our own eyes of who she is and what she does, cannot so simply be forgotten. In fact, her ghost image keeps on coming back in our own minds every time someone mentions her. It's just like saying: "Don't think Elephant!" and keeping seeing the elephant in our minds.I titled my review "The science of forgiveness... and understanding." and indeed that's the juice of this movie. It is much less a love story, than a human story, a story of human destinies clashing, bumping, crashing, landing, walking and ultimately explaining themselves through the art, or if you will, science of forgiveness and understanding. A lesson and a story we can all identify ourselves with.OK. Now that I have spent my time spending my Summa Cum Laude to these gifted actors and actresses, as well to all the off-screen personnel, I can only tell you one thing, if you think you know a movie by the title, or because you have read about it, well, think again. One must watch them before being able to judge them. Some may even reveal themselves as gems of movie making."Snow Cake" can certainly be considered one of them.

In reviewing this movie, the first thing that has to be mentioned are the great performances from the two leads: Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman. Weaver was absolutely unbelievable as Linda Freeman, a woman suffering from autism who is confronted by her daughter's death in a car accident, while Rickman was almost as good (almost because he has a less demanding role) as Alex Hughes (the man who was driving the car in which Linda's daughter was killed.) After the accident, Alex takes it upon himself to visit Linda, and the movie basically follows the relationship the two develop. That, mind you, may be the movie's greatest weakness. I didn't really see either purpose or closure to this. Yes, we watch the relationship evolve, but personally I didn't think either Linda or Alex ever really moved on. I'm not sure after watching this what I wanted them to do, but everything in the end seemed so unresolved. Yes, I learned a lot about living with autism - and Weaver apparently researched the role studiously - but I still kept wondering where this was going and I never really got an answer.Having said that, this was still an enjoyable movie because of Weaver and Rickman, although I confess that I did wonder why - in a Canadian/British production - the need was felt to cast an American actress in the lead role? I appreciated the setting of the movie. Having lived a few years in Northern Ontario, the "feel" seemed realistic, with perhaps the one exception being the reaction of the neighbours to Linda dancing at Vivienne's wake. The movie seemed to portray their disapproval, whereas - knowing these types of communities - I believe the townsfolk would be far more understanding of Linda's "differences." That aside, I would still highly recommend this movie. It features some of the best acting you'll find anywhere. 7/10

From director Marc Evans (My Little Eye), this mix of both comedic and tragic moments is a very good look at Autism, almost as effective as Rain Man. Basically Alex Hughes (Alan Rickman) is a recently released (for murder) man travelling to Winnipeg to see an old friend, and along the way he gives the annoying, but vivacious Vivienne Freeman (Emily Hampshire). He may not have wanted to at first, and just when he warms to her eccentric nature, the vehicle is in a serious automobile accident, killing Vivienne. After talking to the police, he sees the address of Vivienne's mother, and decides to speak to her. After a difficult meeting with the mother Linda (Sigourney Weaver), he afterwards talks to neighbour Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss), who explains to him that she has autism. Linda wants him to stay till after the funeral, the day the garbage is collected, and he agrees. In the days leading up to it, Alex makes a partner with Maggie and a few other friends, and learning more about Linda's uniqueness he also finds himself letting out past demons, such as his son's death and the man he killed. The moments that really get to you are the Scrabble game with made up words and an example of their use, and of course, the end, when Alex leaves Linda a cake made of snow (because she likes to eat it, and has no temperature sense), and it is Maggie that takes the garbage out for her. Also starring James Allodi as Clyde, Janet Van De Graaf as Meryl, Julie Stewart as Florence, Selina Cadell as Diane Wooton, Callum Keith Rennie as John Neil and David Fox as Dirk Freeman. I can have some understanding of the character of Linda (not in exactly the same way), because I myself have a form of Autism called Asperger's Syndrome. Weaver is very compelling, Rickman makes the most of his self-grieving character, and the support from Moss and the brief Hampshire are good too, a good tragicomedy. Very good!