Berlin Dispatch. 1.

"Exceptional performances can exist in mediocre films," wrote Jonathan Marlow right here just the other day, and it goes double, maybe even triple for Snow Cake, which officially opens the 56th Berlin International Film Festival tonight. This isn't to say that first-time screenwriter Angela Pell hasn't constructed a terrific set-up and then, in some scenes, taken it to wonderful places. Only that it tips over into sweet sentimentality a few times too often, squandering nearly all the good faith the audience has invested in the story up to those cringe-inducing slip-ups. A more discerning director might have been able to set it upright again, but you can't help suspecting that Marc Evans has done the double-dipping in the sugar bowl here.

Left: Sigourney Weaver and Snow Cake co-producer Niv Fichman
Right: Lee Young-ae at the press conference for the Berlinale International Jury

Still. Those of us who enjoy watching - and listening to - Alan Rickman conjure all the sour weariness of the world are treated to a performance we haven't seen in a while, a full-bodied character with room to stretch, grow and even reveal strains of genuine humanity. He even flashes a smile now and then, and early on, too, when, as the introverted Englishman Alex Hughes, he's yanked from the obscure novel he's reading by a vivacious teenager (a winning turn from Emily Hampshire). Something terrible happens, compelling Alex to a small town in Ontario, where he meets and, as fate would have it, must stay for a few days with Linda.

Who's autistic. Which brings us to Sigourney Weaver's performance, and for the most part, it is a deft, studied piece of work along the lines of what we saw in Gorillas in the Mist and only occasionally - rarely, really, but often enough - teetering into Nell territory.

No, they do not fall in love, thank heavens. That story is reserved for Carrie-Anne Moss, and it's a different story entirely. In fact, a few journalists at the press conference suggested that it's a story that's got no business in the movie at all, but it does handily illustrate that as the snow melts in Ontario, well, hearts do, too. Evans insists that he didn't want to make a "social realist" film. If that is indeed a pitfall, he's certainly steered wide and clear of it.

All that said, given a shot, Snow Cake will find its audience, cinematographer Steve Cosens does fine, mood-capturing things with the winter light, and festival openers are aimed at crowds, not at a theater full of cynical critics offering demonstrably lukewarm applause.

Posted by dwhudson at February 9, 2006 10:50 AM