Snow Cake

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Snow Cake

Directed by	Marc Evans
Written by	Angela Pell
Starring	Alan Rickman Sigourney Weaver Carrie-Anne Moss Callum Keith Rennie
Release date(s)	September 8, 2006 (UK) December 1, 2006 (USA), September 14, 2006 (Canada)
Running time	112 minutes
Language	English
IMDb profile

Snow Cake is a drama film released on the 8 September 2006 in the UK. Directed by Marc Evans, it stars Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Carrie-Anne Moss and Callum Keith Rennie. The movie was filmed in Wawa, Ontario.

Snow Cake is a drama about the friendship between Linda, an autistic woman (Weaver), and Alex (Rickman) who is traumatized after a car accident involving Linda's daughter.

The movie was screened and discussed at Autism Cymru 2nd international conference in May 2006 as well as the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, among others. It was the opening night screening for the Berlin Film Festival as well.^[1]

1 Plot
2 Awards and recognition
3 Notes
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

When Vivienne Freeman (Emily Hampshire) gets a ride from Alex Hughes (Alan Rickman) in his car, she is killed by a truck crashing into the car. Everybody agrees that it is not Alex's fault. He visits the victim's mother Linda (Sigourney Weaver), who is autistic. She has been informed about her daughter's death a few hours before Alex's visit, but is not showing any sadness. However, she has a cleanliness mania due to which she does not want to touch a garbage bag. Her problem is who will put it outside on the garbage collection day, that was always done by Vivienne. She insists that Alex stays a few days so that he can do it. He agrees and also arranges the funeral.

During his stay he visits and has sex with Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss), a female neighbor who, he has been told, is a prostitute. He asks how much he owes her, but she is surprised, she did not do it for money. He is embarrassed, but also relieved, not only that she is not seriously offended by the insinuation, but also because he was not sure he had enough money with him. The police warns her to be careful, Alex has committed a murder and served a prison sentence for that. Nevertheless they continue to be friends and have sex. Maggie does not confront Alex about the matter, but later Alex confesses about the murder: he killed the man who caused the death of Alex's son in a car crash, on the day Alex was going to meet his son for the first time; Alex had only recently learned about his existence, the result of an affair a long time ago.

Although Linda first tells Maggie she does not want any help from her, Maggie helps Linda anyway.

[edit] Awards and recognition

The film was nominated in 4 categories for the 27th Genie Awards in 2007:

Best actress: Sigourney Weaver
Best supporting actress (shared): Emily Hampshire
Best supporting actress (shared): Carrie Anne Moss
Cinematography: Steve Cosens

Also, Snow Cake won the Zip.ca People's Choice Award at the 2007 Kingston Canadian Film Festival.

[edit] Notes

Many critics have called this film the defining role of Rickman's career thus far. The screenwriter, Angela Pell, actually wrote the role of Alex Hughes with Rickman in mind. It was also Rickman who read the script and made sure Sigourney Weaver (whom he had previously starred with in Galaxy Quest) was contacted about the role of Linda. Both Rickman and Weaver were runners-up at the Seattle Int. Film Festival for Best Actor and Best Actress jury prizes respectively. Rickman's name has also been tossed about a little regarding potential Oscar nominations.

During the course of making the movie, Alan Rickman chose not to research the subject of autism. According to director Marc Evans, an autistic individual is 'unusually honest'.^[2]