The Winter Guest (1997)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Great Film overall

Good concept, poorly executed.

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

Four interconnecting stories: The main one being a woman argues with her elderly, busybody mum about a possible move to Australia for her and her son after the untimely death of her hubby. Meanwhile, said teen has his first sexual experience with a girl who's been stalking him for months. Also on the agenda are two boys adventures while playing truant from school, and a couple of old friends taking a coach ride to attend a funeral. All this is set in the template of a very wintry Scotland, where even the sea has frozen over.A slow burning meditation on life among different generations, it manages to be quietly moving without having to resort to overdramatising. All of these people FEEL real, and their segments are each satisfying in their own way, even interlinking at certain points. As a demonstration in acting its a masterclass, with special honours reserved for Phyllida Law as the overbearing, interfering mother from Hell. Probably not a classic, but gratifying enough. And the beautiful white landscape is a star all by itself.. 6/10

Kudos to Alan Rickman for so uniquely, creatively, and successfully directing such a thought-provoking work of art. After seeing this film, I have a newfound respect and admiration towards him. The actors did wonderfully. The two boys, Sean Biggerstaff and Douglas Murphy, were the perfect touch of curiosity and, due to lack of a better word that actually exists, scrumtrilescence.Just having taken an Advanced Placement Literature course in my last year of high school, I actually enjoyed voluntarily analyzing the plot and subtleties of this film. Seeing how it's summer and I wasn't asked to, that in itself is quite a feat.I've discovered that each pair that we watch in the film goes through a pattern, though I won't give specific examples due to length (and patience) restrictions. At first we see them live their lives as they have been doing so that the we as the audience become better acquainted with their personalities and lifestyles. Then, we are introduced to an aspect of one person's life that they have been choosing to ignore, yet is and has been on their minds for a long time. The emotional measure of this aspect is proportional to the age of each pair; the older they are, the deeper and more pressing this aspect is psychologically. Four climaxes occur, one for each pair, when this aspect, this obstacle of theirs, surfaces. One character from each pair experiences this climax and changes their life for the better, while the other also benefits from their partner's epiphany. The resolution to each climax is only a few minutes long at most. This leaves the viewer with a warm happy feeling of resolution and closure.My warm happy feeling lasted for days, during which I couldn't stop smiling. I highly recommend this movie. Oh and for goodness sakes, don't worry about analyzing it-- it's a superb movie to experience.

Nothing really happens, and we don't know a lot more at the end than we did at the beginning. This is not a story, it's a bit of poetry. The actors are outstanding, the setting is mesmerizing and the direction is delightfully spare. Watch this when you are in the mood for something soft, if just a bit bristly -- like Emma's hair.

This 'Day in the life of' film seems to have drawn more pretentious gobbledegook comments since 'Citizen Kane'. 'The Winter Guest' is a quiet little film that weaves a group of ordinary people's lives through a cold wintry atmosphere. The acting is as to be expected from this type of British Film, in other words, good. It is to be enjoyed as a diversion from reality, not as some hidden, cryptic wonderland as some would put forward. Films are for entertainment, let us stop trying to make some sort of scientific religion out of every film that is not purely a vehicle for sex or violence.