GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Wordiezett So much average

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Brigid O Sullivan (wisewebwoman) This is one of the best movies about men in the midst of emotional turmoil that I have ever seen. Anthony LaPaglia,playing the part of the widower father, Jim Winters, of two sons brings a subtle defeat to every spare word he utters and every movement he makes.The unspoken pain is tangible. The sons have reacted in their own way to their mother's death. The elder in a low paying menial job, the younger, who has a hearing handicap, just about tunes out of everything and is failing in school.The father does his best at being a father but is woefully inadequate through his emotional unavailability. There are no easy solutions in this crie-de-couer of a movie. And mercifully no two by fours of plot development either. Rather we are gently drawn into this shattered family and get to care about them. Jim's slow emergence into the real world (he makes a tentative connection with a new neighbour, played by Alison Janney with a lovely softness) and his slow letting go of his elder son, is the basis of the movie.Wonderful script and direction by Josh Sternfield. Shots were a little too murky on the small screen at times. But overall an 8 out of 10. Movie is highly recommended as one of the sharpest and most telling insights into the emotional world of men.

tralee71-1 /Can anyone tell me why the film was given this title? All or most of the story took place in warm months. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year./I mostly enjoyed this movie and its acting, and was charmed during most of the movie by the director's use of silence. Much of the emotion came just from the actors' expressions, glances, restraint. But after 80 minutes or so of restraint, I wished to God someone, anyone, would open his/her yap and speak true feelings, as well as some revealing dialog. /I can appreciate slice-of-life movies that lack a neatly tied bow at the end, but this one felt truncated to me. I wanted to know much more than we were told. Where was the setting of the film? Where was Allison Janney's "real" home?/Are there really entire families that substitute "hey" for all other forms of greeting, such as hello, hi, how are you, good morning?

lee-foote By making a spectacle of dwelling on the mundane this movie confirms the obvious. Clearly many people find this very pleasant and reassuring that they are not alone in their communication problems, being victims of fate, and having the beneficence and underlying virtue to rise above the expected bitterness. There were a lot of pleasant emotional "ah so" moments but the pregnant pauses and awkward silences got old. As if there is an unspoken elephant in the room, nobody is commenting on the ending. Without spoiling anything, I will say the rasher of unresolved story lines left dangling seems a gratuitous attempt at artistic direction, and a cheap one at that. It irritated me that so much time was spent on character development that went nowhere. It is with some vindictiveness that I add these last to sarcastic questions: Is Sternfeld considering a sequel? Did he run out of money mid-way through the production? Great guitar work on the spare and crisp sound track. Soundtrack trivia - I can't think of any place in North America that one can hear Canada Geese on a lake and also have a profusion of Azaleas in bloom simultaneously. Maybe Missouri near a zoo or botanical garden?

noralee "Winter Solstice" is a quiet, almost all-male counterpart to "Imaginary Heroes," dealing with the same theme of family grief, and was even filmed in the same town of Glen Ridge, NJ.Debut writer/director Josh Sternfeld perfectly captures the inarticulatelessness of working class guys, particularly in father/son and brother/brother interactions.Anthony LaPaglia as the landscaper dad and Aaron Stanford as his restless older son add to the minimal script with on screen charisma. It's sweetly charming how absolutely clueless they are in their lack of communication with the women who are attracted to them, but Allison Janney and Michelle Monaghan are overly understanding minor characters in their intersections with the dad and older son, respectively. I presume this is to emphasize the hole in their lives caused by the absence of the mother.The problem is that without either more intervention by the women or the alcoholic violence of Sam Shephard's male family explorations, authentic looking and sounding guys hanging out together don't do very much or resolve issues. Pretty much the only plot point is the older son's gradual decision to leave --though I was surprised he has LPs to pack up--and how the other characters react to that.It was nice to see Brendan Sexton again, more filled out, but he looked distractingly like the younger son played by Mark Webber so that I was confused at first that he was the best friend not the brother.John Leventhal's intricate guitar playing on his original score is almost distractingly good. The song selections are beautiful sounding, though not particularly illustrative.