Winter Solstice
Paramount Classics | Release Date: April 8, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
12
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
As quietly dazzling as a small, very precious stone. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A realistic drama that looks and feels as inevitably true and moving as a good documentary. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
All three men turn in superb and understated performances. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
A high-wire act, treading a thin line of truth between hokum and homilies. You hold your breath, waiting to see if the filmmakers misstep, but they never do. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
The title is too cutesy and clever, but it's about the only unsubtle aspect of this poignant, humble drama that'll probably get lost amid the multiplex bombast, but shouldn't. Read full review
80
VarietyDavid Rooney
Story of a still-grieving widower and his two troubled teenage sons is distinguished by its emotional integrity, sustained mood of aching melancholy and superbly understated performances. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Beautifully unemphatic small-town drama. Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Sternfeld has created a garden on film that opens up its blooms for us, not in the dark of the movie house, but long after we've left the theater. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
A well-built machine that dunks you into a big warm vat of sadness. There's no plot: It's a situation drama. Instead of punch lines, it delivers regular shots of heartbreak. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Very little actually happens in the movie. There are no cathartic breakdowns or soul-changing epiphanies. Instead, we're offered a collection of small moments that feel so familiar, they remind us how false most films really are. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie is not plot-driven, for which we must be thankful, because to force their feelings into a plot would be a form of cruelty. The whole point is that these lives have no plot. Read full review
70
The New York TimesLawrence Van Gelder
The boys, particularly Mr. Webber as Pete, are astonishingly good, and Ms. Monaghan, who looks like a slightly more tomboyish Liv Tyler, makes a deep impression in a minor role. Mr. LaPaglia, of the television series "Without a Trace," brings a tender gravity to the shell-shocked Jim. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Sternfeld's approach is rigorously minimalist, which is a plus since the Winters family is in no way extraordinary or distinctive. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
I can't think of too many actors who could bring off Jim Winters. LaPaglia manages to convey, wordlessly, the man's inner struggle. Read full review
60
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
What makes Winter Solstice, a nice little Jersey vignette about a widower and his two teenage sons, so striking is writer-director Josh Sternfeld's respect for the verbal shorthand of family interaction. Read full review
60
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Sternfeld not only deals empathically with his cast, he seems to know that his screenplay is not very novel or stirring; nonetheless, he wants to present these human beings in their skins, so to speak. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It's not sleepy, it's comatose, and writer/director Josh Sternfeld never wakes it up with anything as crass as a plot. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
So much is unspoken and this slice of reality is so thin and slow as to make the film downright unsatisfying. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The movie never actually gets to winter: The title is just a clumsy play on the family's surname. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
The film, bound to bore the socks off impatient viewers, mistakes reserve for depth and ends up hamstringing its talented cast into playing characters you never care about all that much. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverJean Oppenheimer
Oddly, the film's strengths -- its quiet, understated manner; its non-plot; the awkward speech patterns and uncomfortable pauses that suggest emotional isolation -- are also its weaknesses. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeJanice Page
Ultimately undercut by its fictional elements and its flat characters. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Despite stellar work from the cast, the movie seems as emotionally distant from its audience as its characters are from each other. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Too sensitive for this world or any other, this stifling portrait of a family stuck in bereavement offers the painful sight of at least two highly accomplished actors frozen for lack of direction from novice writer-director Josh Sternfeld. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Sternfeld's script, developed at the Sundance screenwriters' lab, is spare to the point of stinginess; individual scenes play beautifully without adding up to anything, stranding the actors in an emotional vacuum that drains the life from their performances. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Neither a change of seasons nor truly wonderful performances can breathe life into the dismally enervated Winter Solstice. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's dreadful, but it's a special kind of dreadful -- the kind designed to appeal to intelligent people on principle. Read full review
10
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
The result is a numbing void, and a long, frustrating wait for something to happen. Read full review
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