WINTER SOLSTICE
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Paramount Classics
Grade: B
Directed by: Josh Sternfeld
Written by: Josh Sternfeld
Cast:Antony LaPaglia, Aaron Stanford, Mark Webber, Allison
Janney, Ron Livingston
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 3/7/05
Josh Sternfeld's "Winter Solstice" looks like a film developed at
the Sundance Institute, and sure enough, this simple tale of a
family in modest dysfunction is indeed a product of that fine
body. The pace is leisurely, so much so that while its low-
budget look could easily fit on the small screen in your living
room, one might doubt the patience of the typical TV viewer for
scenes seemingly brought to a halt with unnecessary verbiage,
pregnant pauses, and nervous giggles.
Anthony LaPaglia anchors the story as Jim Winters, a youngish,
middle-aged dad whose wife had died in a car accident five
years earlier and whose two sons, Gabe (Aaron Stanford) and
younger brother Pete (Mark Webber), are on the road to going
nowhere. Pete goes to a school in which I'd have liked to teach,
with well-behaved lads and lasses, one of whom is thrown out of
the room by the teacher for simply whispering to his neighbor,
and with a summer-school class with only four students. (I'd
also appreciate being a student of Ron Livingston, who plays a
history teacher, Mr. Bricker, and whose role in Mike Judge's
hilarious "Office Space" six years back makes me want to smile
each time I see him.)
Pete gets along OK with his dad and for a while, so does Gabe.
The trouble is that the boys have problems on their mind but
avoid verbalizing them until late in the game, when a revelation
by the older brother leads to a moment of climactic physicality
between father and son. Dad will probably mellow out, though,
as he has just met the outgoing Molly Ripkin (Allison Janney),
who is house-sitting for a friend just up the block and shows an
interest in Jim–who has decided that maybe he can spend a
little less time on his job as a landscaper and more on
expanding his social life with the woman.
As a New Yorker, I particularly appreciate the movie's arguable
subtext, which is, just what are the advantages and
disadvantages of living in a small town–in this case a lovely,
quiet town in New Jersey where the local soda fountain serves
as the place to hang out? For dad, the town is ideal since he
enjoys the outdoors and makes his living tending to his
customers' gardens. He rides about on a bike and, given that
Mr. LaPaglia looks younger than his forty-six years, he could
almost pass for a kid on a paper route. While his chances of
meeting someone to fill the space left by his departed wife are
slimmer than those of a city cat, he simply would not fit in here
on the Upper West Side. But while the boys have a good time
swimming in the nearby lake, the younger one is inattentive at
school while the older guy wants simply to get out of this village
community and start a new life in Tampa.
The picture is well acted by the reliable Anthony LaPaglia with
strong support from Aaron Stanford, Mark Webber, and by
Michelle Monaghan as the girlfriend that Gabe is about to
surrender.
Not Yet Rated. 93 minutes © 2005 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com
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