Categories: review
Date: 24 February 2009 13:09:56
I spent yesterday at home, not well enough to go into work. A few weeks previously, I had noticed in the Radio Times that a film called Snow Cake was being shown. The blurb mentioned that one of the characters had Asperger's Syndrome. I was sufficiently interested to order a copy of the DVD, and so yesterday had the opportunity to watch it.
In my view, Linda, played by Sigourney Weaver, is further along the autistic spectrum than AS, but she is high functioning to the extent that she appears to live independently (although the film makes clear that she is in reality significantly dependent on other people). Several AS traits do play a part, including a tendency to take everything literally. It's quite a moving film. Alex (played by Alan Rickman) seems to have difficulty expressing his emotions; in contrast, Linda appears to lack emotion, although I suspect that I'm putting that simplistically. She asks Alex whether people usually cry at funerals (her daughter has been killed in a car accident).
I knew about the accident from reading a synopsis. I didn't really want to watch that part of the film, but, of course, it was unavoidable. I was reminded of Fly Away Home, which starts with a car accident (and also has a strong Canada connection). But in "Fly Away Home", the child survives the accident ...