Snow Cake (15)

Dir: Marc Evans, 2006, UK/Canada (112 mins)
Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss
Following reality TV horror in My Little Eye and the psycho-angst of Trauma, chameleonic Welsh director Evans returns with a character-focused drama set in smalltown Canada.
Alex (Rickman), fresh out of jail for killing a man, picks up a pretty young hitchhiker who is collecting the stories of lonely men for her writing. Just when the journey seems to be heading to a very dark place a fatal twist occurs and propels Alex into the world of Linda (Weaver), a high-functioning autistic woman.
Moss glows as a loose woman offering shelter in the storm and Rickman is at his dry sardonic best. Weaver’s the problem though. She’s simply too familiar a face to assuage audience discomfort at another able-bodied portrayal of onscreen disability.
Even Brit sarcasm cannot stop the film straying into soppy territory, but a score by Broken Social Scene, and indie soundtrack including I Am Kloot diverts from occasional sentimental forays. Kate Taylor