Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Search cinema listings

Browse cinemas A-Z

Search 20,000 reviews

 

The Winter Guest (1997)

Director: Alan Rickman

Average user rating
689 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

This confident directorial debut is unashamed of its theatrical origins. Alan Rickman, who helped create (and directed) Sharman Macdonald's play in Leeds and London, wrote the script with the playwright, and retains Phyllida Law as the meddling Elspeth who tries to rekindle a relationship with her grieving daughter Frances (Emma Thompson, Law's real daughter). Set against the snow, wind and ice-blasted landscape of a Fife fishing village, it follows and contrasts the diffident, often quarrelsome relationships of four pairs of characters - two teenage boys playing hooky; two ageing 'funeral' junkies; Frances' son and an independent young woman; and the mother and daughter. The distraction of the Pinter-esque pauses and use of language notwithstanding, it's well acted (with child actors Murphy and Biggerstaff especially winning), sensitively directed and expressively shot (by Seamus McGarvey), but finally a shade too dramatically sealed up.

Author: WH

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

591 comments: page 1 of 40
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


The Winter Guest

Cast & crew

Director: Alan Rickman

Producer: Ken Lipper, Edward R Pressman

Cast: Phyllida Law, Emma Thompson, Sheila Reid, Sandra Voe, Arlene Cockburn, Gary Hollywood, Douglas Murphy, Sean Biggerstaff full cast

Duration: 104 mins

RENT THIS DVD and more on Lovefilm

Top Stories

A Farewell To Tartan Films

A Farewell To Tartan Films

To mourn the loss of the great Tartan Films, Time Out remembers a few of the best films to emerge from their impressive canon

Jason Bateman: interview

Jason Bateman: interview

Jason Bateman – star of ‘Hancock’, alongside Will Smith – talks to Time Out about his comic influences and how to pretend to throw a car

Ten Great Head Shots In The Movies

Ten Great Head Shots In The Movies

Lots of people get shot in the head in the new film 'Wanted'. Read our guide to some other great head shots on film

Set visit: 'The Damned United'

Set visit: 'The Damned United'

Dave Calhoun gets his training kit on as he visits the set of a new film about football legend Brian Clough’s torrid spell at Leeds United in the mid-1970s