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"Winter Solstice" is a quiet, low key little drama that plays more like a documentary then an actual film. Not much style or flash is used here, but it is not really needed with a movie like this. This is the kind of movie where you feel the director just dropped a camera in this little town and lets them speak and go about their daily life. Everything looks familiar and normal. Anthony LaPaglia is a father of two sons played by Aaron Stanford and Mark Webber. Their mother passed away 5 years ago. She was picking one of them up from a baseball game five years ago and got into a car accident. This accident has really put a damper on the family and stopped any forward progress. Jim Winters (LaPagila) spends time trying to be close to his sons. But has no real plan or motive on how to do so. Most of the time when he tries, his kids end up laughing at him or shrugging him off. He struggles to find the right notes and lines of communication with his sons. You get a real feel that the mother provided the boys with that and now that she is gone, the father is left to pick up the pieces and clueless how to do so. Michelle Monaghan in Paramount Classics' Winter Solstice Pete is doing poorly in school. He sometimes shows up, and when he does, he is there in body, but not in spirit. He is a smart kid who knows the answers, just is not always in the mood to provide them. He was the unfortunate one who was in the accident when his mother passed away. He is struggling to come to terms with this and sometimes feels like trying, and sometimes does not. His summer school teacher (Ron Livingston) can see this and finds odd ways to get him to stay focused. His older brother wants to move to Tampa. He gets annoyed and tired of his life where he is at now and feels the best bet is to move. He has a girlfriend named Stacy played by Michelle Monaghan, who after finding out he is moving, puts an end to all contact with him. No big speech, no tears, just accepts it, gives him his stuff and moves on with her life. That is the theme of this movie. No answers, no reasoning, no back up. Just accepting and moving on in whatever way is best for you. Healthy or unhealthy. There is a real authentic speech between all the characters. Have you ever been to the house of a friend and you seem them fighting with their parents? That is how this movie feels. You feel like you stopped right into their lives. This movie in ways reminded me of the HBO mini series "Empire Falls" that played earlier this summer. Anthony LaPaglia in Paramount Classics' Winter Solstice About people in small towns dealing with tragedies in their own way. Sometimes they find solutions, sometimes there is no solution. Sometimes they keep going on. Sometimes they don't feel like going. Anthony LaPaglia does his best work here as a silent but deeply wounded father by his past. When he meets a neighbor played by Allison Janney, this friendship is not cutesy or movie like. They share a scene talking in his car and it is just about the most realistic scene that can be found in the movies. The movie ends and no real answers or solutions have been come up with in the 90 minutes, but I am glad. It is not always that easy to come up with a solution to your problems that easy. This movie does not attach a embracing ending with hugs, laughs, tears, and smiles. It just ends and they go on as normally as they could be. Which is something we all try to do day in and day out. email this review to a friend
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