Snow CakeMovie Reviews

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 54 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
15 OK for kids 15+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Most noteworthy for the performance of Sigourney Weaver as Linda, an autistic woman. Read full review

  • 70
    Los Angeles Times | Carina Chocano

    Modest but well wrought and witty, Snow Cake is full of unexpected moments and clever observations. Read full review

  • 63
    New York Daily News | Jack Mathews

    In the end, Weaver provides a moving and sensitive portrait of one person out of an estimated 400,000 in America with this mental disorder we are just beginning to understand. Read full review

  • 63
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    Snow Cake is dazlious, too: overly forced, a shade too whimsical, but filling a void other words and other movies haven't the nerve or errant taste to confront. Read full review

  • 50
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    The mental and physical landscape would do justice to an Atom Egoyan film, but in this film, the key dramatic moments feel as forced as they are predictable. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    Never gets as emotionally involving, or persuasive, as the moviemakers intend it to. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety | Derek Elley

    Boosted by a delish performance from Carrie-Anne Moss as a local vamp who helps unthaw the Englishman, but holed beneath the waterline by a gratingly miscast Sigourney Weaver as the persnickety autistic. Read full review

  • 50
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    An awfully tidy, infernally sparkly study in skewed blessings, made manifest by Committed Acting from Sigourney Weaver. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

    Like "I Am Sam," it is a film that tests your cynicism. Read full review

  • 40
    Salon.com | Stephanie Zacharek

    The picture is so drab and listless that it often feels like punishment, even though Rickman gives a fine performance, one that's heartfelt as well as characteristically elegant (not to mention sexy). Read full review

View more reviews for Snow Cake on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 15+ Autistic woman shows grieving adults how to live.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that most kids probably won't be interested in this indie drama, which focuses on adults who have troubled pasts -- including a man just released from prison and a woman who has a few "gentleman callers." A third main character is a high-functioning autistic woman, whose behavior may prompt questions from younger viewers. A violent car crash early in the movie results in a passenger's death. There are some brief discussions of sex (nothing graphic) and a post-sex scene showing a couple in bed together. A few uses of "f--k" in anger.
  • Families can talk about autism's growing visibility in the media -- which has increased as more and more people are diagnosed. How does the movie portray a "high functioning" autistic adult? How is she different from other autistic TV and movie characters (Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, for example, or Sean Penn in I Am Sam)? How does the movie use her as a model of behavior for other damaged adults around her? What other messages does the movie send?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: An ex-convict talks about his crime; an autistic woman models "living in the present" provincial townspeople try their best not to judge unusual behavior.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Early car accident is very jarring (crash, car flips, man emerges bloody and dazed, passenger is killed off screen); repeated, cryptic conversations about a man's prison term (he describes his crime later in the film); brief description of a man's son killed by a drunk driver.
  • sex false0 Sex: Joke about "gay" executive; a couple of conversations about a woman presumed to be a prostitute (she's referred to as a "hooker"); some conversation about sex (when to have it); post-sex scene of couple lying in bed.
  • language false3 Language: At least five uses of "f--k," plus "s--t" and "hooker."
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: Diet Coke, McDonalds, Scrabble, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Brief wine drinking during a romantic dinner.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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