A Long Winter follows Mike (Fred Hechinger), a young adult who finds himself alone with his domineering father, Lester (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), in the icy Colorado mountains during the winter after his mother, Louise (Caitriona Balfe), walks into the snow. As the winter gets more intense, the search for Louise progresses, but with it come secrets that were frozen in the snow.
A Long Winter is very much about the cold. A sheet of white dominates the screen for the majority of the film’s runtime. The family just breaks the ice every now and then. Andrew Haigh does not let you forget just how cold and isolating the mountaintop is. Add to that a complex relationship with his family, and protagonist Mike feels every moment of the isolation wrought by their remote location.
The film is a breakdown of the 1950s family structure. From the very start, one can tell an uncomfortable tension lies beneath the family’s happy dinners. The film opens with Mike’s brother, Tommy (Kit Connor), leaving the home to fight in the Korean War, choosing the military over the family. The implication is that he’d rather be at war than at home. At the dinner, Lester encourages Louise to tell the family about how he wooed her. It starts as something sweet, but Balfe’s incredibly moving, nuanced performance as Louise breaks, unable to pretend that she is even satisfied (happiness is a far cry), in her isolated family life. Lester tries to cover it up with music and dance. Does the family notice Louise’s dissatisfaction? Or do they pretend not to?
But beneath the ice is a warm film. Mike discovers his sexuality under the rule of his father. Lester performs the stereotypical patriarch. He doesn’t cook or clean, is the classic tough guy, and somehow can’t see anyone but himself as a fully realised person. Ebon Moss-Bachrach steps out of his usual role as a generally likeable character to embody someone who shifts between warm and loving and cold and dominating in a complex portrayal of masculinity. In contrast, Mike is quiet, restrained, and desiring. He fantasizes about the men he sees in town. Hechinger’s portrayal of desire and quiet rebellion against the patriarch is both strong and moving.
The film’s strong writing and editing give it a hypnotic quality. A brilliant minimalist score lets performances breathe and shine. The largely white landscapes are broken by a few warm scenes — a warm bath, Mike imagining a lover next to him, and Mike dreaming that his mother escaped. These sequences offer relief before plunging the characters back into the mountains. Andrew Haigh’s A Long Winter is a powerful, meditative drama examining the broken family dynamic. Its exploration of queer sexuality within this dynamic is tender and warm, which perfectly contrasts the icy patriarchal household.
But each winter, no matter how long, brings with it a promise of spring. The ice will thaw. What remains buried will come out. And everything will be okay.
A Long Winter is released in UK cinemas January 15th.
