Snow Cake

The first part of this film, in which a reticent, middle-aged Englishman Alex (Rickman) is encountered by kooky teenager Vivienne at a snow-swept Canadian truck-stop, builds false expectations of an unlikely generation-gap relationship in the same vein as 'Lost in Translation'. But by a shocking twist of fate, the story takes an utterly different course, and Alex finds himself at the door of Vivienne's highly-functioning but seriously autistic mother Linda (Weaver), a character who doesn't understand social codes but is obsessively proud of her immaculate home. The rapport between Weaver and Rickman produces much of the film's humour and depth, but it is Weaver's studied, sensitive portrayal of autism which steals every scene she's in, easily on a par with Dustin Hoffman's more extreme portrayal of the condition in 'Rain Man'. An unconvincing side-story involving vivacious neighbour Maggie (Moss) is somewhat unnecessary, but 'Snow Cake' still emerges as an intelligent, enchanting (and Oscar-friendly) tale of family, love and loss. [Nick Mitchell]