Snow Cake Synopsis
Prepared by CatsPlay (http://catsplay.livejournal.com) and Apythia
(http://apythia.livejournal.com), with input from Chevelle
The following is a detailed synopsis and overview of the movie Snow Cake, which stars
Alan Rickman as Alex Hughes
Sigourney Weaver as Linda Freeman (who is autistic)
Carrie-Anne Moss as Maggie
The movie is directed by Marc Evans, written by Angela Pell, and made
by Fortissimo Films
CatsPlay, Apythia and Chevelle attended the North American premiere of the movie,
held at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on March 4, 2006.
Special Notes:
 Throughout this document, CatsPlay references a TRAILER, which can be
viewed at http://www.fortissimo.nl/catalogue/title.asp?filmID=264
 CatsPlay had knowledge of the film and had seen the trailer prior to viewing
the movie
 Apythia had little knowledge of the film and had NOT seen the trailer prior to
viewing the movie
 References to AR = Alan Rickman
 CatsPlay is the writer of the main body content in this document
 Apythia is the writer of the notated comments in this document
DISCLAIMER:
 The authors of this document have no affiliation with Alan Rickman,
Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss, Marc Evans, or Fortissimo Films
 The authors have made every attempt to reflect the contents of the film
accurately, but make no representations regarding the accuracy of their
statements
SPOILER ALERT
This document is a detailed, in depth discussion of the movie
Snow Cake and contains detailed information about the plot
and spoilers. If you do not wish to know this information,
DO NOT READ FURTHER!
I am prefacing this entry with a huge, huge disclaimer: I have the world’s WORST
memory. I am not exaggerating – my memory is horrendous. I did take notes
throughout the movie – basically I jotted down one word reminders of scenes or things I
wanted to remember ( as I really wanted to focus on the movie rather than take
detailed notes). I’ve transcribed out further memories from that initial set of notes, and
now I’m going to write from those expanded memories.
In addition, I received some feedback from Chevelle, who was sitting relatively near to
AR and could see some of his reactions to scenes in the movie. I will incorporate these
when available.
Finally, after writing this, I asked Apythia to review and revise it, correcting any errors or
omissions that I may have made, and adding any additional thoughts or information.
Big thanks to both Apythia and Chevelle!
First, a bit of a preface. You probably recall the snafu regarding the squid movie that
they accidentally started to play. Prior to both the squid movie and Snow Cake itself,
they showed this hilariously funny Tribeca Film Festival promo. Basically, it was this big
guy, dressed in a very bad drag outfit, accompanied by a timid looking gentleman,
walking on the street. They run into a housewife looking lady and her two kids on the
street, and engage in this ridiculous back and forth conversation, in which the housewife
completely ignores the fact that he is dressed like a woman.
“Bob, HI, how ARE you? I didn’t see you at the office last week!”
“Ellen, I’m doing great. Are these the kids…awww!
“Are you hooking now, Bob? Wow, that’s great!”
“Yes, well, it gets me out of the house…”
And on and on…..with mundane, ridiculous conversation, totally ignoring the fact that
this guy is a drag queen prostitute.
It really was quite funny. So, the reason I shared all that with you is because Chevelle
said, “I kept looking back and forth from the screen to him through the whole thing (the
whole movie). I wanted try to watch his expressions through certain parts of the film.
He laughed a lot. He thought that the preview of the male hooker was hilarious. And
then when the film began and it was the wrong film I turned and looked at him and he
was laughing and then started clapping. That was pretty funny.”
OK, here goes. You’re going to find me saying “I think…” and “I can’t recall exactly…” a
lot throughout this. Actually, you’ d be surprised what a daunting task trying to
memorize an entire movie actually is. So please bear with me and take what I say with
a slight grain of salt. It is entirely possible and actually high probable that I will get
something wrong.
Oh, and just a word about the theater and the screen. Maybe I lead a sheltered life, but
this movie screen was massive (or maybe it’s because I was sitting in the front row). I
think this theater was a great place to see a film though, because I truly thought the
sound quality was out of this world.
Snow Cake
Note: video quality seemed *extremely grainy*, at least at the beginning of the movie.
I can’t say that I noticed this as we got into the movie, so maybe it was intentional, or
just an issue at the start of the film.
I believe the screen opens with a blue sky screen…maybe some snow (not sure), but I
recall that you hear the sound of a jet flying. There’s music, I think, playing, and we
then see an extreme, extreme closeup of AR’s face. He is on the airplane. If I recall, I
think they just stay on this extreme closeup for awhile. It was kind of a nice, thrilling
way for AR fans to start the movie, in all actuality. The Man in massive closeup
detail…..
Note: I really don’t have good recollections of how they ‘transitioned’ between each
scene. So, when I don’t recall, I’ll just do this to indicate movement from scene to
scene.
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.
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The next thing I remember (or wrote down) was that you suddenly see that log truck go
past, loudly (as in the trailer), and the setting is now the diner. I can’t recall if we see
him walking in, or if he is already sitting in there at the table. Vivienne comes into the
diner and heads over to his table. She asks if the can sit down and he begrudgingly
says yes, and goes back to eating and reading. There is more extended conversation
between the two of them, than is shown in the trailer. She really is, I thought,
charming, eccentric and enjoyable.
There is a funny interaction between this bored out of her head waitress who comes
over to take Vivienne’s order, and she orders a Coke. The waitress says, ‘diet?’, and
Vivienne goes into this long explanation of how yes, she’s tried to diet and nothing
works. The waitress is just annoyed with Vivienne’s smartass funniness.
Vivienne asks Alex what he’s reading, and he tells and shows her it is the book “Wipe
the Slate – Light the Candle”. I forget exactly what their interchange is regarding this,
but I recall him looking at her sarcastically and saying that “It’s fiction” (again, sorry for
not remembering these details).
She is being very chatty and he says something to her like, “Look, I’m not very….
Chatty.” Eventually she asks him for a ride, but he tells her no. We see him leaving the
restaurant and he sees her standing along the road, holding the sign that says “WaWa”.
I forget how it happens, but this, I recall, is when he backs up and tells her to get in,
and the statement about her having to get out if he gets tired of her or at Winnipeg.
Contrary to the order shown in the trailer, as soon as she gets in the vehicle, he
immediately tells her, “Look, I’ve got to tell you, I just got out of prison. I killed a man.”
And then they drive off.
.
.
.
We then see a series of scenes between the two of them, driving together. In a
nutshell, we see them becoming closer and Alex really beginning to enjoy her company.
She plays music and sings loudly, amusing him. We see them in the scene where they
stop and eat at McDonald’s, and they’re sitting in the car eating together, and he reveals
little things about himself (like his brother working on Wall Street and being gay). They
have a good laugh over this.
We also see some shots of him driving, looking over at her, and she has fallen asleep.
Alex smiles. (*thud, BTW*). Again, he’s enjoying her company.
As the driving continues (and I am not saying that these driving scenes that I am
describing come in this exact order), the scene from the trailer where you see his profile
driving, and he kind of bites his lip…. That lip biting actually happens after Vivienne
asks him if he has any kids – and he hesitates ever so slightly, and then says no, and
then bites his lip.
We also see the scene when the stop for gas and she comes back to the car with the
bag of blinky balls. What we don’t see in the trailer is that she also bought one of those
things that is like a clear ball on a stick, which has spinny lights inside. I do have to say
that I found something odd in this scene – when she comes back to the car and is
showing Alex all this stuff, before she even mentions that they are for her mother, Alex
says, “Oh, JUST what she needs.” This struck me as slightly odd because there had
been no mention prior to this of her mother. So it was weird that he said that without
the concept of the mother being introduced (it felt like a continuity or sequence error to
me, or something). I guess it was just implied that this was something that they had
probably discussed along the way.
At this point I started to get nervous, because I knew what was coming. I also kept
thinking about AR sitting behind me, and wondering if he could see me jotting down my
one word notes.
Anyway, we then see Vivienne turning up the music really loudly while Alex is driving.
She is singing the song “All Right Now” really loudly – the music is blaring in the car and
they are having fun, laughing about it. While the music is still playing (the music is not
evident in the trailer), Alex stops at an intersection to make a turn and the truck barrels
into the car.
I have to say, even though I knew it was coming, this was an extremely traumatic
moment. The impact scene is incredibly intense and with the sound system in there, it
was pretty mind blowing. Everyone jumped, I think I put my hands over my face or
reacted physically it was so intense. Chevelle observed AR at this moment and said,
“I jumped so high during the crash scene. I knew exactly when it was coming but it was
just so loud!! I think he jumped too. I turned and looked at him just at that moment on
purpose.”
Anyway, as in the trailer, you saw the massive impact, and the vehicle rolling and
coming to a stop. Then you see a shot looking down at the shattered driver’s window.
The scene is now completely quiet. You could feel the shock and intensity of the
audience just being numb, and the theater was totally and completely silent. Through
the drivers window, you can see AR laying in the vehicle, just barely moving his head. I
think he may be moaning a bit. At some point he starts to mumble, “Viv,
Viv”…Honestly, it was just agonizing to see it. Horrifying.
Then, you see the vehicle from a different angle and you see AR start to try and climb
out the top (as his door is way up in the air), and he is obviously completely distraught,
and still saying, “Viv…Viv..” His nose is bloody.
I think then you start to see action happening, the scenes move more quickly. You see
the truck driver running up, I think he is saying, “Oh fuck, oh fuck” or something.. you
see EMTs and cops pulling up. You see (as you do in the trailer) AR stumbling out, bent
over, bloody nose and yes, he does in fact puke as he is being helped by the cop. This
is where he is screaming, “There’s somebody still in the car…”
You also see a shot of some cops or EMTs peering into the passenger side and just
shaking their heads. AR sees this and it is obvious that he is aware as he is being taken
away from the wreck scene that she is dead, and that he is completely devastated.
Again, all I can say is that the wreck scene was pretty mind-blowing. Even as it ended,
I felt completely shaken up, stunned, kind of numb.
We then see (as in the trailer) the profile shot of AR in the police station. I don’t think
that AR immediately says, “I want to see her mother”, as the cop, I believe, is telling
him procedural things like he will have to stay in town for a few days and that it will take
them a few days to recover the rest of his things. I think AR then says, “I want to see
her mother,” but the cop tries every excuse to avoid that, saying that’s just not a good
idea. AR keeps insisting, but the cop refuses, saying something like, “If your daughter
was just killed, think how you would feel,” which is obviously painfully ironic to Alex
since his son was killed. The cop shows Alex the bag that they were able to recover
from the wreck, which is the bag of the blinky balls and the twirly light thing. I think
there may have been a few more odds and ends, and the cop tells him to take what is
his. Alex doesn’t let on that the balls are Viv’s and he gathers them up.
The cop steps out or something, and we then see Alex alone in a room with a table
upon which is a folder, that he opens up and sneaks a peek and get’s Linda’s address.
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There may have been another scene here leading up to this, but I believe we then see a
very short (10 second or less?) scene with Alex riding on a crowded greyhound bus, and
Maggie (Carrie Ann Moss) is sitting 3 or 4 rows behind him. I kind of wondered what
the purpose of this scene was. Maggie has obviously not yet met Alex, but we see them
both riding this bus. I’m probably forgetting something, but I do know no one talked in
this scene and it was very brief. I think maybe before or after this scene, we also see
AR with the plastic bag of blinky balls walking, on a road, past the building or whatever
it was with the giant goose on the roof. My thoughts are kind of blurry on this.
.
.
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We see Alex standing in a rain/snow/nighttime situation in what we will find out is
Linda’s neighborhood. We see a woman, standing at Linda’s door, knocking and
knocking on it and asking her to let her in. We hear loud music and Linda refuses to let
her him. The woman goes away. I believe her name is Florence.
AR goes to the door (trailer scene), and the music is playing loudly. He is talking
through the door, trying to get her to open it, and she refuses to. She does eventually
open the door, and as in the trailer, they talk (Alex seems bewildered at why she is
showing no emotion, “Yes, I know she is dead,” and Linda then closes the door in his
face). He then says (though the door) that Vivienne had bought her something. She
opens the door again and lets him in.
Im reviewing my notes, there is a whole series of scenes that come next that I am
unsure of the order that they occur in. But suffice it to say that this series of scenes
focuses completely on the introduction and evolution of Alex and Linda, how he decides
to stay there with her, and begins to understand a little bit about her.
Upon entering the house, he gives the balls to Linda (as seen in the trailer) and she is
amazed with them. He watches her with amazement and is trying to figure her out. I’ll
just make a few general comments here – Linda is much more ‘obsessive’ (I guess that
is the word) than I imagined from the snippets from the trailer. She has lots of
fixations, and we see that evidenced immediately by her forcing Alex to remove his
shoes and her obsessive straightening of the shoes into perfect alignment. And
generally, I went into the movie with an expectation that AR’s character was going to be
very withdrawn, sullen, quiet, shy, and unconversational. I have to say that I was really
pleasantly described that this is not how I perceived him in the movie at all. Although
he is definitely a sad person, struggling immensely with his past demons, and
uncomfortable with situations at times, for the most part, he is delightfully sarcastic,
humorous, sweet, paternal, and I daresay in some ways confident.
Anyway, jumble of scenes in an unknown order…
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.
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Linda, at some point, realizes she should invite him in and offers him some tea. I
believe it was at this point, as he begins to step into the room that she immediately
stops him and tells him to “take his clothes off”, because they are soaking wet and she
does not want drippage all over her carpeting. Of course, the looks that AR gives
throughout all this are priceless.
At some point in this sequence, Florence comes to the door again, knocking loudly, and
AR and Linda go to the door. Florence says to Linda that someone should be staying
the night with her. Linda wants nothing to do with this and pulls Alex from behind the
door and says that HE will be staying. He objects and I can’t recall how it ends up that
Florence is convinced to leave, but she does.
Alex continues to try and explain to Linda that he just cannot stay, and I believe it is at
this point that Linda brings up that Vivienne’s job is to take out the garbage on
Tuesdays, and that he must stay until at least Tuesday because “she can’t touch
garbage” (this is an important theme in the movie). Somewhere in here, I guess during
this discussion, Alex asks for his clothes and Linda pulls they soaking wet out of the
dryer and throws them at him, because she is upset that he says he cannot stay.
I can’t recall, but I think in this conversation between them of him needing to stay, she
says that the funeral is on Tuesday and that he should stay until then.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that there is a scene in this section in which we see Alex
sitting with Linda in the laundry room, next to the dryer, and he is wearing HER pink
sweatshirt and grey sweatpants (which, as you know, are woefully too short on him, and
this is the first time that we see him in it – it’s cute). I don’t think they speak in this
scene, it’s just meant to have a comical feel to it. But you see, Chris, we were right,
those are Linda’s clothes (remember, all his stuff WAS misplaced in the wreck).
Also in this segment, after things settle down and he has agreed to stay, we then get to
the crying scene. For the most part, you’ve seen the bulk of the crying scene in the
trailer. They are in the kitchen with the tea, and it was kind of abrupt how it started – I
think Linda was talking and suddenly you just hear and then see him start sobbing and
sobbing. I just recall that it was kind of unexpected – emphasizing, I guess, that he had
been holding these feelings in and that they just burst out. I wish I could remember if
she said something specific that triggered it, but I don’t. Anyway, as I said, you’ve
seen basically the whole crying segment. During this segment, I felt sad for Alex, but I
didn’t cry or get extremely choked up. I guess I just watched it more in complete awe
than in sadness.
We then see more scenes that we are familiar with… him trying to get to sleep on the
very small futon, completely too big for it and uncomfortable (I made note of his legs
and feet in this scene…), and then sneaking into Linda’s room to the bunk beds. The
only thing we didn’t see of this scene in the trailer (or was it another of those individual
clips) was him walking down the dark hallway looking for somewhere else to sleep, and
coming upon a doorway with a sign on it that said “DANGER. DO NOT ENTER.” He
enters and then the bunk bed scene progresses.
It’s now the next day, and I think it starts with the precedent to the trailer portion
where Alex is staring at the Snow Globe. It’s kind of cute, as she has a whole bunch of
snowglobes and other knickknacks on the shelf, and Alex picks them all up quickly, one
after another, and shakes each one up (like he is trying to get them going all at the
same time *melt*). He then picks up the one with Vivienne inside and that’s what you
see in the trailer.
I believe this is when the phone rings and Alex steps outside to tell Linda that the phone
is ringing. She is laying in the snow and this is where she explains that eating snow is
similar to the feeling of having an orgasm, and asks him if he has ever had an orgasm,
to which he replies, “It has been known.” Maggie (Carrie Ann Moss) then comes over
from her house next door and they have the conversation that we see in the trailer
(“How are YOU doing?”, Alex – “I don’t know.”)
I believe the next scene is the precedent to the segment that we see in the trailer where
we see Linda asking Alex if “people like him”. The first part of this conversation is that
Linda tells Alex that she has to go down to identify Vivienne’s body, and asks Alex if he
will come with her. He seems hesitant but she implores him and he says yes. She says
she doesn’t understand why she has to go do this, as everyone knows Vivienne. He
explains to her that it’s just procedure. Once they agree upon this, Linda then asks Alex
if “people like him?” and he says, I think, “No, not really,” and she goes into the thing
about his face being long and his glasses not looking right. She pulls open a drawer full
of glasses and gives him a different pair (I don’t recall their conversation about this).
Then we see the cute scene with Alex standing at the mirror examining himself in the
glasses, as in the trailer.
I think, not positive, that the next scene that we see is Alex walking the dog. Oh, and
somewhere in here we see Linda feed the dog by dumping a banana (unpeeled) into his
dish. The dog walking is cute because the dog’s leash is purple fur, so Alex looks
ridiculous walking the dog with this purple fur leash. By this point I’m sure you’re ready
to strangle me for not remembering crucial details, but as Alex walks the dog, he ends
up at Maggie’s house. We see the cop leaving Maggies, looking warily at Alex who then
goes to Maggie’s door. I believe Alex is at Maggie’s door to borrow some tea (trailer
scene) *cough* There must be some chit chat, because she then says, “So did you
really come around for tea?”, and he asks (*precious face*), “Have you got any?”
Believe it or not, as much as you’d like to believe it, this is not the bed scene. Alex and
the dog enter Linda’s house and sits down on the couch. They chit chat, I believe she
reveals some background about herself (she’s been there for 12 years, likes men, is a
free spirit), and we also see a bit of the interior of her house. She has deep burgundy
walls and you can see an incense stick burning on the bookshelf near Alex. Linda invites
Alex over for dinner that evening and he accepts.
Oh, and at some point, I *think* after Alex accepts her dinner invitation, Alex and Linda
are in the kitchen talking and it’s obvious that Linda doesn’t like Maggie. She tells Alex
that Maggie is a prostitute and everyone knows it. Really, I think that was after Alex
had accepted Maggie’s dinner invitation but I can’t be sure. I guess that’s an important
point to figure out though, as to whether he accepted the dinner invitation thinking she
was a prostitute or not. Sorry! Um, it might be around this area, actually, that Linda
dumps the banana in the dog bowl.
It’s probably around here that we then see the scene of Linda and Alex going down to
identify Vivienne’s body. It’s just heartbreaking. The scene starts and we see Vivienne’s
body on the table (I think she starts covered by a sheet, that they then remove), and
Linda is standing near the head of the body, to the right of the screen. We do not see
or hear Alex. Linda is refusing to look at Vivienne and it is very awkward. We hear the
policeman asking her repeatedly, “Linda, is this Vivienne, is this your daughter?” Linda
keeps turning and glancing at the body (I think the sheet is off of her face by now) but
does not look into her face. Finally, the camera turns to the left and we see Alex
standing back in the corner of the room, and the look on his face is just filled with
anguish. We can see that he wants to say something, and that he is just horrified with
the situation, but he keeps silent for a bit. Finally, after the cop keeps asking and
asking, Alex blurts out, “YES, YES, It’s Vivienne.”
We then see Alex and Linda walking down the hall of the police station or morgue or
wherever. He is walking right next to her, and she stops midway down the hall to
straighten up a bunch of pamphlets that are all crooked. He looks at her patiently while
she does this. After she does this, they then continue down the hall together, and I
think we hear Alex say something like, “Come on, let’s get you home” (not those words
persay, but something like that). This scene, to me, made Alex seem very paternal and
caring and it was becoming more and more obvious that Alex really was stepping up to
take an active role in watching over Linda.
I think around this time is a scene which is a face closeup of AR with large headphones
on his head. He is in Viv’s room. Guys, you are going to *thud* when you see this
scene. The song, “Just Looking” by the Stereophonics is a key song throughout the
movie. We see and hear Alex singing the lyrics to this song. It is incredibly touching.
This scene was one of the most vivid impressions of the movie and AR that I have. The
tempo of the song is somewhat slow, and they keep the face closeup, and AR sings
loudly and with feeling,
there's
there's
there's
there's
things
things
things
things
i want
i think i want
i've had
i wanna have
Oh. My. God. It really was quite beautiful. I think at the end of this scene Linda
comes into the room and although I forget the actual discussion, I think Alex says
something about the song being nice for the funeral, and he actually holds up the CD
and says something like, “It’s great, it’s the Stereophonics.” (paraphrased). Which
struck me as slightly odd.
Actually, there’s another scene somewhere in this section too, where we see AR in
Vivienne’s room, looking around, and reading through her artwork, scrapbooks. Her
room is very funky, with crazy stuff, fiber optic lights, etc. So we see him looking
through all of her artwork and writing, and (according to Apythia, she remembered this),
we see him reading from one of her art pieces,
The past is a memory
The future is a fantasy.
It is only in the present that we truly live.
These scenes are meant to establish that Alex is the one who is worrying about planning
something meaningful for Vivienne’s funeral.
I think we then move into the ‘dinner’ *coughing fit* scene with Alex and Maggie. AR
shows up at her doorstep, with dog and purple leash in tow, and gives her some tea.
She makes some joke about normally getting flowers and chocolate. He enters the
door, before she does I think, with the dog in tow behind him, and she gives a comical
look and makes some funny statement about “the dog, too” as she enters behind him.
I think there’s some quick chit chat, and we then see the two of them sitting at the
table. She is spooning shrimp onto a plate, and says something about shrimp cocktail
being the standard fare that she serves her gentleman callers.
I’d like to make another observation here. Again, I have to say that although I was
expecting Alex’s character to be quiet, shy and reserved, which he is to some extent, he
also came across to me as relatively comfortable or not overly awkward. He kind of just
bounds into her house, and seems relatively at ease with himself. I dunno, maybe it
was just me.
SHUT UP CatsPlay, get to the good stuff!
OK, right. So the point here is that the whole dinner thing progresses almost
immediately to *cough* other things. Before they even start eating, it’s the whole
AR: “You’re beautiful”
MAGGIE: “I really like you, and I hate having sex on an empty stomach, so should we
just skip the main course and move next door?”
AR: WTF? Look.
Maggie: “Oh, my, I’ve forgotten – it’s the English thing, isn’t it?”
AR: “No, no, that’s why I’ve come here.”
*thud*
Note: something I’ve never understood is why she says, “let’s go next door”. To me,
‘next door’ implies another house or something.
We then cut to Alex and Maggie laying in bed. Maggie is lying closer to the camera.
They are covered with the sheet, but AR’s chest is out (nipples *slap*) and I think he is
lying there, kind of with his hand flopped over the top of his head (it’s a fantastic nose
profile shot), and he apologizes for it being “so quick”. Maggie says it’s no problem, “we
have all night”. I think he says something about, “Maybe the dog put me off,” ROFL!
The two of them are just laying there, on their backs, next to each other, and then
there’s some chit chat about Winnipeg and maps and such, and AR says he should be
going and then starts to put a shirt on. This is when she pulls him back and we see the
trailer closeup of him against his neck, saying “I think you’re ready to try again.”
Move on to the kissing scenes. Really, I think you’ve essentially seen all of it in the
trailer. The scenes are shot very closeup, so you’re really not seeing any body action.
Nonetheless it was extremely enjoyable *mega coughs*. Oh, interjection from Chevelle
here about AR’s reaction to watching this in the screening (*uber adorable*)
During the little sex scene he had his left hand covering half of his face.
At this point I could completely stick a dagger in my eye for punishment, because I must
have momentarily lapsed into a dazed, euphoric state or looked away from the screen
for a second or something, because, we then cut to a scene where AR really DOES have
to leave, and all I know is I looked up at the screen and I caught the tail end of him
pulling his trousers on. CRAP! So I missed the first few seconds of that and I don’t
know what could be seen. But I’m thinking nothing.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, interspersed a few times throughout the bed scenes they
cut to scenes of Linda, sitting alone in Vivienne’s room. Kind of like her trying to deal
with the situation in her own way. She’s touching things and looking around, and in one
of the scenes we see her pulling these really big, funky boots of Vivienne’s onto her
feet.
Oh, so back to Alex and Maggie, after he gets his pants on, he’s sitting on the floor next
to the bed and he says to her something like, “Um, I’m not sure how this is supposed to
go, but how much do I owe you?” Egads! There was an audible gasp throughout the
theater. Honestly, I really thought at this point he had really fucked it up. She is pretty
stunned at first (she’s still laying in the bed), but she dealt with it admirably and he then
realizes that she is not a prostitute and he is completely mortified. I think, not positive,
but I think at this point he leans over the bed and kisses her again before he goes.
.
.
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We then cut to a scene at Linda’s in which we see and hear her screaming loudly, very
upset about something. Alex comes rushing in and wants to know what is wrong. She
points to dog puke on the floor and is highly upset about it, and says, “Now I’ll have to
MOVE”! He keeps trying to calm her down and repeatedly says, “Don’t worry, don’t
worry, I’ll sort it”. (which I thought was such an English way of saying, “I’ll take care of
it.”) I think Linda tells him, “Just don’t go in the kitchen!” , or not to use the kitchen or
something. We then see Alex scrubbing the floor on his hands and knees, and then he
looks around to see if Linda is around, and he sneaks into the kitchen with the bucket.
He drips huge amounts from the bucket all over the floor and he’s quite funny, and then
he dumps the bucket into the sink and tries messily to wipe up the floor. I guess I
should mention, as I really haven’t been saying it, but throughout everything – all of the
interactions between Alex and Linda, her autistic/obsessive tendencies are a constant.
She constantly arranges things, sorts and orders them, and also I should note that she
never really looks into Alex’s eyes (although a few times I thought maybe she did, but
wasn’t sure if that was something I was intended to see or a mistake).
Anyway, I believe at this point somewhere Alex and Linda have a discussion about Linda
having to go to work, and Alex doesn’t realize that she had a job. She tells him she
works part time at the grocery store stocking the shelves.
Note: after the screening, I had a chance to speak to Marc Evans, the director. I asked
him why he chose to leave out the second McDonald’s scene from the trailer (where
Alex tells the woman, “Actually, she’s my wife”), and Evans said that he felt that that
scene was not needed because of the ‘dog puke’ scene. I guess he meant that the dog
puke scene was effective in continuing to reinforce that Alex was taking a protective
position in Linda’s life, and ‘taking care of her’.
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We see Linda in the grocery store, in her uniform, sitting on the floor, painstakingly
lining up dishwasher detergent in precisely perfect rows.
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Somewhere in here is the scene with Alex and Linda on the street, and the lady to
whom Linda says, “I didn’t lose her, she’s dead,” from the trailer. The interesting thing
that we don’t see in the trailer, is that this lady is very flirty with AR in this scene. He
just plays it off, but we will see her flirting with him again later.
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More of Alex ‘taking care of things’, we see him in the vet’s office with the dog (i.e. the
dog puked, he’s sick). The vet is very sarcastic, and asks Alex if the dog has been
eating, and he says something like, “in a matter of sorts” and then tells her he’s been
eating bananas. She says something like, “Well, there’s this thing, it comes in cans…it’s
called dog food.”
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We see the cop at Maggie’s house, and he comes in. I think she is a bit defensive about
why he’s there, and he says something to the effect of, “this isn’t a social call,” or “I’m
not here for that” or something. He tells her to be careful around Alex, that he’s been
researching him and that he was in prison for killing a man. Maggie seems unphased.
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We see Alex and Linda playing Comic Book Scrabble. You’ve seen most of the guts of
this scene in the trailer or other clips. It’s quite cute. What you didn’t see is, Linda
makes the word DAZLIOUS. The rules are that you have to use the word in a sentence.
AR tells her to use it in a sentence, and Linda goes into this long, elaborate fantasy story
about dragons or something. The point is that it’s a beautiful, elaborate story coming
from this woman who is autistic and has such issues. So, at the end of this long speech,
she ends it with saying something like (and sorry, I wish I could remember the words)
the sunset or the bright sun and sky being DAZLIOUS.
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We see a quick shot of an area on the kitchen counter, which is now labeled with a
handwritten sign that says, “Alex’s Area”, with a few mugs and such sitting there. So
we begin to see that Alex is becoming very integrated more into Linda’s household.
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Lake scene (from trailer). This one bewildered me a bit in the beginning, as it opened
with a conversation between Maggie and Alex that confused me. Maggie says
something like, “I THINK your DOG may not be up to speed, it may need to get a little
more EXERCISE. Maybe in the BATHROOM.” I was like, WHAT? Then I realized, I
*think* she was talking about his weenie, and telling him that he needed to masturbate
in the bathroom to improve his performance. It was REALLY quite an odd thing for to
say, at least it seemed that way to me. The other weird thing about it was that it
seemed to go completely above Alex’s head – he didn’t acknowledge at all that he
understood what she was implying. Hmmm.
Other that that oddity, you’ve seen a lot of this scene from the trailer. I think, again
weirdly, that his immediate response to her ‘dogs’ statement was, “What exactly is it
that you want to know?”, and she says, “Everything”. So he tells her about his son,
Ryan, and shows her the photo. We get a bit more information than is in the trailer,
though. He explains that he hadn’t known about him, but got a letter from him.
Apparently he had had a fling with some woman who hadn’t thought it serious enough
to inform him at the time that they had a child. So Alex was at a diner waiting to meet
Ryan for the first time, who had agreed to meet him there. He said he never showed
up, because he was killed in an accident by a drunk driver. He says that he is on his
way to Winnipeg to see Ryan’s mother.
I have written in my notes from this scene, “Fucking Fantasy”, and I don’t know what it
means. Alex must have said these words in these scene. I should say that Alex swears
profusely a number of times in this film (much to my enjoyment).
This scene ends with her leaning over and hugging him tightly, in silhouette profile.
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We see AR in what appears to be some sort of sporting goods store. He has a loud
looking blue plaid shirt (which I think had some fuschia colored stripes in it), and he is
standing at a rack looking at eyeglasses. This scene was really kind of odd, I can’t say
that I really got its point. The clerk is a young, gnarly type dude who keeps trying to
engage AR in conversation. He talks with words like, “totally”, “gnarly” and stuff. I
don’t remember the specific conversation (again sorry –brain dead idiot, I know), but
he’s kind of encouraging AR about the glasses and telling him those look radical on him.
AR is looking at the guy like he’s a kook. But the really weird thing is that I got the
impression that this young guy was FLIRTING with AR. Again, I dunno if it was just me,
but it was really kind of weird. I think AR ends the scene by rejecting the glasses
choices that he was trying on and says something like, “Never mind, I’m just browsing.”
Oh, and we will learn later (spoilers with spoiler I guess) that he is buying this kind of
loud shirt because he wants to wear something eccentric, that Vivienne would
appreciate, to her funeral. The reason I mention this is because he also wears a
horrendous, completely mismatched tie to the funeral, and I can’t recall if this is among
the things he is buying in this scene.
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When Alex gets back to Linda’s house, and is walking up to the front door, he sees the
truck driver who caused the wreck standing at the door, holding flowers, ringing the
doorbell. (I think Linda is at work or something). You can see AR getting infuriated.
Remember, (although I don’t think he has revealed this to anyone specifically in the
movie, yet), but the man that he killed was the drunk driver who killed his son. So this
is dredging up all of those memories for him – like he’s reliving a nightmare, I imagine.
The truck driver is obviously distraught over the whole situation and seriously has come
to apologize and try and show kindness. He says that it was an accident. AR then says
in a bitingly harsh tone,
“My heart BLEEEEDS for you.”
It was brilliant. Classic. This heated exchange continues and AR goes on a tirade,
swearing up a storm. My notes say, “Not your fucking daughter”, and I know he used
he word “bastard” and “fuck” a number of times. The truck driver finally gets in his face
and says, “Come on, do it, hit me.” You can see AR’s brain trying to restrain and he is
in anguish, but he turns and runs. This is when we see him running down the street in
the trailer. I kind of forget how the running scene ends – I think it’s with a face profile
closeup as he slows down running and is breathing heavily.
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Next is the trampoline scene. I believe this starts inside the house and AR is trying to
talk to Linda about some aspects of the funeral. It is obvious that AR has taken
responsibility for the majority of the funeral planning. I believe he is trying to get Linda
to agree to have people come over to her house after the funeral on Tuesday, and she
is disagreeable because she in no way wants people coming in to mess up her house.
She keeps asking Alex to “come out and play, and bounce me on the trampoline”. I
think there conversation moves outside at this point and she is bouncing, and still
begging him to come up to ‘bounce her’. He finally tells her he will, ONLY if she agrees
to allow people to come over after the funeral. She agrees, and he climbs on the
trampoline and starts bouncing. Linda is bouncing and giggling wildly. We see Maggie
watching them from her house and smiling.
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Somewhere along the way Alex had asked Linda where her parents were. She
explained that they travel all the time and that they were off somewhere camping or
hiking and couldn’t be reached because there was no cell service. Later, we see Alex
and Linda listening to an answering machine message from her parents (who are still
unaware). The sound sweet and ramble on in the message about what a great time
they are having.
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Alex at Maggies house, sitting a the coffee table (we’ve seen it – trailer or still photo or
something). He makes some statement about enjoying all this, “sex and muffins” or
something or other, and he says he’s liking, “being with you, with Linda, being with
myself again.” The thing that came out differently for me on this from the trailer was
the face that he makes when saying the ‘myself’ part – a real raised eyebrow type
moment, he really placed emphasis on the ‘myself’ part. In fact, I almost wondered if
the cut of him saying it in the movie was a different cut than was on the trailer, because
the word ‘myself’ just came across to me in the movie as being very emphasized. And
then he leans over and kisses her on the mouth. *excuse me while I get up* Scene
ends.
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Remember the flirty lady from the street? She shows up at Linda’s door, and Alex
(wearing a blue polar fleece robe with snowflakes all over it) and Linda answer the door.
The lady comes in with this pizza like box, and they go into the kitchen, and she opens it
to show them. It is a giant chocolate chip cookie with an angel on it. Linda asks what it
is, and the lady says it is a ‘bereavement’ cookie. Linda immediately says, “I can’t eat
that!”, and Alex explains that Linda is ‘gluten free’. (I forgot to mention that before, it’s
kind of a running thing through the movie). (and again, illustrating just how ingrained
Alex has become in her life). So the lady says, “Oh, OK, it’s my nephews birthday, I
guess I can take it home and take off the icing and use it for that.” And Linda says,
“Here, let me do it.” And she grabs the box and goes over to the dog dish, and picks up
a dustpan from the floor and scrapes the icing off into the dog dish using the dustpan.
The lady looks horrified and Alex just gives the lady a pained smile. She says she has to
be going, and as she is at the door, ready to leave, Alex kind of has to force her to take
the cookie box. It’s a funny little scene.
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Alex is outside Linda’s house and we see a car pull up and two older people, who we
presume are Linda’s parents, pull up. Alex stands by and watches them get out. The
woman is visibly upset. They introduce themselves and say, “You must be Alex,” and
are very gracious and kind to him, completely accepting of him. The mother says
something about, “we always worried about Linda, we never imagined we had to worry
about Vivienne.” Alex is pained with guilt, you can tell. I think it’s shortly after this that
we see Alex and the parents inside Linda’s house. Linda’s father is in Vivienne’s room
and Alex comes in and the grandfather explains that Linda got pregnant and that they
essentially raised Vivienne. Alex asked how that happened (Linda getting pregnant) and
the father says that they never really knew. Linda was somewhere with some guy or
something, but never acted traumatized. I think it’s at this point (Alex is wearing the
blue plaid shirt and the crazy tie), that he explains that he wants to wear the
mismatched clothing to Vivienne’s funeral because he thinks she would have appreciated
it.
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We’re then at the hug scene. I can’t actually recall how it started…..sorry, and you’ve
seen the essence of it from the trailer (including that emotion filled face that AR makes).
But in the context of the story, the scene came across even more poignant. It was
really touching. And the other thing that was not part of the trailer that, I think before
they cut to the shot of him standing there, hugging but not touching her, he says to her,
“Say when”. And then they just hug and hug. You see a bit more than is shown in the
trailer of her really burying her head into his shoulder as you see him from behind.
Brilliant scene.
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Next is the funeral scene. For some reason I’m really fuzzy on a lot of this scene. We
see people sitting in the church, Linda entering with her parents, seeming awkward. We
see Alex sitting with Maggie. We see stuff setup in the front like a fiber optic light from
Vivienne’s room. I don’t recall seeing a coffin, though, maybe I missed it. Again, I’m
kind of vague on remembering this, but as the funeral is about to begin, the back door
of the church opens, and of course, everyone turns around, and it’s the truck driver who
caused the wreck. You immediately think, “Oh, shit.” We see Alex get up immediately
(looking pretty dorky in the plaid shirt and weird tie), and confront the truck driver. No
one says anything, but Alex then extends his hand to the truck driver and they shake
hands. Oh, and I must mention (for those people who read my blog regularly – AR
does a classic ‘slow blink’ right at the truck driver right at this moment!)
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I think the song that I mentioned before, Just Looking, is playing throughout the funeral
segment, and we see Linda’s father get up and he reads some passages from some sort
of children’s book that Vivienne apparently wrote. That’s about all I can recall from the
funeral scene for some reason.
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We are then back at Linda’s house, after the funeral, which is full of people eating and
talking. They cut to shots of Linda, who is distraught, watching people dripping food
and drinks on her house. She’s kind of shut her self off in some area of the house, with
a ‘keep out’ sign. We also see Alex, again, really acting kind of like a host, serving
people things, talking to people, etc.
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We keep seeing the scenes of the house getting messed up with all these people, and
Linda finally loses it. She comes out into the middle of the living room, and turns on
some music, which is very loud, disrupting everything. She begins twirling around in a
circle, kind of in a trance. Some annoying woman attempts to get Linda to stop doing
this, and Linda’s mother tells the annoying woman to STOP, let her be, this helps her.
The annoying woman persists, and Linda’s mother gets in her face and tells her to
LEAVE her alone. Linda keeps dancing and twirling to the music. I think they cut to
AR’s face a few times, just watching her.
As Linda keeps dancing, the background changes into kind of a pink, sparkly, cartoonlike background with snowflakes and glittery things floating around. Linda can see
Vivienne, who is dancing with her – smiling and vibrant and beautiful. Linda keeps
watching her with amazement, smiling and dancing. It’s obviously meant to be a very
cathartic moment for her. The scene in her head fades away slowly. I have to say, this
was the one thing that I thought could have been improved. As much as I hate to
criticize, it felt really kind of ‘hokey’ to me the way they did it. And the cartoon like
background seemed really not to fit in any way with the style and feel of the rest of the
movie.
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OK, I apologize for apologizing again, but at this point, for whatever reason, my
recollection of scenes really, really gets foggy. I don’t know if it was because I was
starting to get depressed that the movie was almost over, if I was already starting to
panic about the possibility of asking a question at the Q&A or what. But yes, I’m a
complete dork as I truly can barely remember these final scenes of the movie, let alone
how it ends exactly. So let’s hope Apythia is able to fill in the blanks.
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My notes now say, “AR leaving – gift – Maggie”. I vaguely remember a scene around
this time with AR sitting in a car, and I believe talking to the policeman, who has a
package (gift). AR says something like, “Let me guess – Maggie?” (which makes no
sense to me as I can’t imagine why AR would be talking to the policeman nor why he
would be giving him a gift from Maggie. Nor do I have any recollection of what is IN the
gift box. GOD! It’s probably like a crucial aspect of the story.)
I think we then see AR at Maggie’s house, telling her goodbye. The one thing I
remember, that made me so sad, is that he is sitting on her couch talking to her, and he
kind of HALF jokingly says something about a house being for sale on the lake, and
maybe he would buy it (did he say ‘for them’, not sure). Now, he says it half jokingly
but you could tell by the way that he said it that in his heart he was hoping she would
go for it. *sob* *tearing up (me, not him)* I forget her words, but in essence she
doesn’t take the lead on it. They stand up and hug, and while they are hugging, he
confesses to her that he killed a man, and the man was the drunk driver who killed his
son. He explains that he went over to confront him, and that he hit him, and the guy
fell to the floor and hit his head on the cement and it killed him. She tells him that she
knows and that the cop had told her. Honestly, (embarrassingly), I can’t even recall if
he kisses her goodbye or how it is they part, or if this scene just ends with him and her
hugging.
Then we see Alex at Linda’s and he is trying to tell her goodbye. She is not really
focusing on it, and he is being patient with her. She keeps dwelling on the fact that the
garbage has to be taken out, and who is going to do it. I think he tells her she has to
do it (again, brain loss, sorry). It takes quite awhile for him to say goodbye to her.
They are standing in her living room and he is near the doorway. ARGH, I can’t
remember if they hug. I don’t *think* they do. How does he exit? ARGH! Maybe my
brain was just refusing to register any scenes in which AR was leaving the movie
*snort*.
Then we see a scene of Linda sitting on her couch from behind, and we hear a
voiceover with Alex saying, “I left something for you, it’s in the freezer.” And of course,
it’s the snow cake, which she sits down and starts eating.
I think we then hear/see the garbage trucks coming. Apparently Linda’s garbage is not
out. We see Maggie burst into Linda’s house (as Linda watches), grab two giant
garbage bags, and drag them out to the curb, giving her a look like, “Yep, I’m doing
this,” but not saying anything.
Then we see Alex driving along country roads, and then the scene of him, looking up at
the bright sky, and taking off his glasses and putting on the sunglasses. (I have NO
idea if that is accurate, just vaguely thinking that’s what happens). Is there a voiceover
here – is it Linda, reciting part of the speech from Comic Book Scrabble which ends with
DAZLIOUS?
Then what? Does it end with just a fade out on Alex’s profile, driving?
Summary
I’ll be honest, I’m really not sure that I have the ability to give an unbiased opinion of
this movie, seeing how much I respect Alan Rickman. Having said that, I enjoyed this
film immensely. It was much more than I expected it to be. Like I said, I had read
other reviews that said AR’s character was sullen, unhappy, and withdrawn. Yet, though
his character obviously was struggling through some horrible life experiences and
internal conflicts, he was far from a person who was completely falling apart. He was
witty, charming, and caring. I guess one could almost say that it could be perceived
that he opened up and warmed up to Linda and Maggie, in a way, almost TOO fast.
After all, this was all occurring over the period of about a week. Although it was not just
a comedy, there are many, many pricelessly funny moments, in both words and in looks
and gestures. I found the relationship between Alex and Linda very, very sweet, and,
as I said, I feel that he projected a very paternalistic attitude towards her. It was
touching to see how she came to need him, and seek his comfort, despite her tendency
not to really show real emotions or ‘attachments’ to people because of her autism.
I could have done with more of the Alex/Maggie romance (*cough*), and I have to
admit, that whole thing really happened pretty suddenly, too, if you think about it. Point
being, for supposedly being such a withdrawn person, Alex seemed to go for that one
without hesitation. I guess it makes sense. The guy did, assumedly, just get out of
prison.
Vivienne was such a bright spot in the movie. She really was so likeable and eccentricly
charming.
Sigourney Weaver was completely impressive as an autistic person. I really can’t assess
whose performance was better, hers or ARs – because they both really were brilliant.
I guess I do need to say, I kind of wanted to become more emotionally invested in the
movie – I wanted to be able to cry at different points – for Alex when he had his
breakdown, and for Linda, when she danced with her dead daughter. But somehow I
just didn’t reach that point. I think I especially wanted to have that emotional release,
because other parts of the movie were so, so intense. The wreck scene is literally one
of the most shocking scenes I’ve seen in a movie – it was very, very intense.
I think I’d have to say that I would classify this movie as my all time favorite Alan
Rickman film. Plus, he is onscreen constantly. It’s like a bonanza – too good to be true.
And he looks gorgeous, and the movie is literally FILLED with massive closeups and
gorgeous shots of him. It’s like a screencappers dream come true.
If, somehow, this film is not released and/or we can’t get it on DVD, it will be an
incredible, incredible disappointment. I’ll be all the more thankful that I got to see it.
And I guess that makes me glad that I’ve gone through the exercise of writing this
synopsis, as well.
Oh, and the music is simply fantastic. The soundtrack will be a must.
I’ve been able to find the following two songs so far, which are currently released and
available
“Just Looking” by the Stereophonics
“The First Cut is the Deepest” by Sheryl Crow