Winter Passing

Winter Passing
Promotional movie poster
Directed by	Adam Rapp
Produced by	David Koplan P. Jennifer Dana
Written by	Adam Rapp
Starring	Ed Harris Zooey Deschanel Will Ferrell Amelia Warner
Music by	John Kimbrough, The Eagles, Azure Ray
Cinematography	Terry Stacey
Edited by	Meg Reticker
Distributed by	Focus Features
Release date	September 10th, 2005 (TIFF) February 17, 2006
Running time	98 minutes
Country	U.S.
Language	English
Budget	$3,500,000

Winter Passing is a 2005 American film. It is the directorial debut of playwright Adam Rapp, also known for his work on the show The L Word. The film stars Zooey Deschanel and Ed Harris, with supporting performances by Will Ferrell and Amelia Warner. The film premiered in 2005 to mixed reviews, and was not released in the United Kingdom until 2013, when it was released under the new title Happy Endings.

Reese Holdin (Deschanel) is a depressed bartender/actress living in New York City. She regularly engages in casual sex, cocaine use and self-mutilation. When a publishing agent (Amy Madigan) approaches her, we learn that Reese is the daughter of a famous author named Don Holdin (Harris); and that her mother, Mary, recently died. Reese did not attend the funeral. The publisher offers the impecunious Reese $100,000 for a series of letters written between her mother and father at the height of their careers. When Reese learns that the kitten she rescued from the streets is dying of feline leukemia, she drowns it and buys a bus ticket.

Despite such family tensions, Reese travels to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to retrieve the letters. Returning to her childhood home, she finds it occupied by Corbit (Ferrell), a down-and-out Christian musician, and Shelley (Warner), a 23-year-old former student of Don's. Reese's father now lives, writes and drinks in his garage. Reese initially clashes with the doting Shelley (whom she accuses of sleeping with her father) but eventually accepts her after learning of the death of her parents and of Don's support of her during a near-fatal bout with endometriosis. She also bonds with the idiosyncratic Corbit, who spurns her sexual advances and has trouble playing guitar and singing at the same time. She feels out of place at home and fights with her father over childhood neglect, stating that her parents gave their typewriters more attention. She eventually finds the box of letters and, reading the emotional communiques, learns to empathize with her estranged parents. Shelly has also read the letters and asks Reese if she intends to publish them. Reese expresses ambiguity over the matter.