Alan Rickman is excellent as Alex, a recently released convict who just wants a quiet life. He stops for coffee and reluctantly picks up a chatty young woman (Vivienne) who is hitch hiking home to Wawa. Just as they reach Wawa, a tragic accident causes the death of Vivienne. Alex goes to visit her mother, Linda, to express his condolences. However, Linda is autistic and therefore appears to show no emotion, or even interest, in her daughter's death. Alex forms a relationship with Linda, and becomes remontically involved with her neighbour. As the film progresses, we find out why Alex was imprisoned. Sigourney Weaver plays the part of Linda extremely well, capturing her vulnerability. It is a film that looks at human emotion and the nature of grieving. I enjoyed it as I felt I cared about the characters and was intrigued by how Linda dealt with her daughter's death.
I was pleasantly surprised at just how good this film was. I'm not a fan of Alan Rickman, but he gave a remarkably restrained portrayal of Alex and Sigourney Weaver as the autistic Linda was the easily the best acting performance I've seen from her. Overall, this is a great film, well written, well acted and peppered throughout with some great dark humour.
I don’t often write reviews on here but I could not praise this movie more the cast the storyline the acting is amazing so much so I got a copy second hand before posting this back.
The only thing that annoys me about this movie is that signorney did not get an Oscar for her portrayal of an autistic woman.
This movie will make you laugh and cry it’s amazing