A Year Ago in Winter

Wednesday September 10

The story is not an original one. A family, and the three individuals within this family, struggle to accept the death of their son and brother. It has been nearly a year since Alex died. Alex's mother commissions a painting of her living daughter, Lilli, along side her lost son. Lilli must spend time with the artist who has been hired. Max, the artist, has family troubles and struggles of his own.

This is a movie that owes the bulk of its success to its lead actress. Karoline Herfurth is terrific as Lilli. The movie was nicely shot and I liked it overall but in my opinion there were a couple of problems with it. The movie would benefit from being 20-30 minutes shorter. I saw the movie with my fellow- blogger Brian and he nailed it on the head when he and I were talking about it afterwards - the last 20 minutes of the movie are not necessary and the dance scene where Lilli releases her hurt and angers and resolves to live life without her brother has been done too many times and just feels cheesy. It doesn't matter if you put the scene to a loud and moody song, we have seen it before.

One mystery is the origins of the movie. Brian and I also agreed on the fact that there must be a story there. The film is based on a book. This in itself is not uncommon. What is strange is that the book has yet to be released. How on earth is the film already made if the book that it sprung from is not in print?

You may be surprised to see me recommend the movie after reading the review above. I do think that there was enough good stuff there to be able to advise a viewing.