Audiences may not get too excited about devastated people who conduct their social lives at the local Dairy Queen.

| Mar 1, 2007

Winter Solstice is an intense drama and all the action is internal. LaPaglia is such a fine actor and every nuance of his bottled up Jim comes through, as he struggles to not only be a good father, but to find a direction in his own life.

| Nov 18, 2005

Winter Solstice thrives solely on how much understatement you can actually handle in a movie.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 20, 2005

...a gem...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 30, 2005

Something that's increasingly rare: a stringently subtextual drama....when they finally arrive, the epiphanies are small ones.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 12, 2005

Solstice offers solace. It is quiet, understated and powerful as a single chapter in several changing lives.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 10, 2005

Sternfeld started with well-conceived characters and simply didn't succeed in making them flesh. These people have traits instead of personalities; goals instead of dreams.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 8, 2005

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 20, 2005

Ultimately undercut by its fictional elements and its flat characters.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 13, 2005

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 13, 2005

To read between the lines in Winter Solstice, you better bring a magnifying glass.

| May 12, 2005

Such a low-key drama that I'm not sure anything happens in it at all.

| Original Score: C+ | May 10, 2005

This movie deserves to be seen -- and learned from. It captures the moments in which each of us stares out across an emptiness, searching for a connection that will keep us from falling.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 6, 2005

Give Winter Solstice some credit for taking an unexpected route.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 6, 2005

Scene after scene of halting conversations, meaningful glances and awkward pauses that will leave you as cold as the ominous title implies.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 6, 2005

A slice-of-life film that, while well-acted, isn't compelling enough to rise to a tale to which you'd want to give two hours of your undivided attention.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 6, 2005

It's the kind of narrow-gauged drama that either will drive you crazy or absorb you in its low-key rhythms. Mostly, I went along for the ride.

Full Review | Original Score: B | May 6, 2005

The filmmaker understands that quiet desperation is often more moving than noisy suffering.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 4, 2005

Flashy it certainly ain't, but there's no discounting the value of a decent story well told, especially these days.

| May 2, 2005

The chill in the air is deadening for the viewer.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 1, 2005