#32 - Winter Passing

Directed by Adam Rapp
2005 Comedy/Drama
Rated R

** 1/2

I wonder what must have been going through Zooey Deschanel's mind when she finished the first twenty or so pages of Winter Passing. My guess would be, "So they want me to play the broke, coke addled, chain smoking fuck the pain away type? Oh, and I have to try and con my genius writer father out of letters he wrote to my genius (dead) writer mother years ago to make a cool 100 g's? And finally, I have to drown a kitten (with feline leukimia, no less!) in the river?" Yes, this is all brought up in the first twenty minutes of what I was sure was going to be one of the worst movies i'd ever seen. While it certainly isn't great, or even good, it's certainly passable. Will Ferrell (SOMEHOW) plays the straight man, and Zooey Deschanel is great as usual. However, the genericism of how the rest of the story plays out and the ridiculously stereotypical "tortured writer" role the normally great Ed Harris plays keep this from being anything better than a Netflix-er.