''Let It Snow'' (also known as ''Snow Days'') is a 2001 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by Adam Marcus and written and produced by Kipp Marcus. The film stars Marcus, Alice Dylan,

Bernadette Peters Bernadette Peters ( ''née'' Lazzara; born February 28, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and children's book author. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo co ...

Larry Pine Larry Pine (born March 3, 1945) is an American actor. A veteran of the Broadway stage, he began his career playing the role of Fop in the 1968 production of ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. He has since starred in film and television, with recurring roles ...

Henry Simmons Henry Oswald Simmons (born July 1, 1970) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie in the ABC superhero drama series ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' (2014–2020) and Baldwin Jones in the ABC police drama ser ...

Judith Malina Judith Malina (June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015) was a German-born American actress, director and writer. With her husband, Julian Beck, Malina co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York C ...

, and Miraim Shor. The story involves a young man who finds love during "snow days" time off from high school, but spends years finding his true self. He is haunted by the family "curse"—as told to him by his grandmother—that the men in the family are doomed. The film was released by

Artistic License Artistic license (alongside more contextually-specific derivative terms such as poetic license, historical license, dramatic license, and narrative license) refers to deviation from fact or form for artistic purposes. It can include the alterat ...

on June 8, 2001 to mixed reviews.

Plot

James Ellis (Kipp Marcus) meets and falls in love with Sarah (Alice Dylan) during time off for

snow day A weather cancellation or delay is closure, cancellation, or delay of an institution, operation, or event as a result of inclement weather. Certain institutions, such as schools, are likely to close when bad weather, such as snow, flooding, air p ...

s while in high school. James, however, has commitment issues, and Sarah eventually winds up engaged to Peter (Peter Giles). His grandmother (Judith Malina) had warned him about the

family curse A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...

, that the "men always leave and the women go crazy", which causes James to be reluctant to commit. Over the next few years, James searches for his true self, ending up at "The CIA" –

the Culinary Institute of America The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is a private culinary school with its primary campus in Hyde Park, New York, and branch campuses in St. Helena and Napa, California; San Antonio, Texas; and Singapore. The college, which was the first t ...

. His eccentric mother Elise (Bernadette Peters), still upset that her husband left her and James, is on an endless search for her inner self and has commitment issues of her own. She spends her time with a series of lovers who don't speak English, in the "International House of Boyfriends". Ultimately James overcomes the family curse and wins Sarah.

Cast

* Kipp Marcus as James Ellis *Alice Dylan as Sarah Milson *

as Elise Ellis *

as Grammy *

as Wendell Milson *

as Mitch Jennings *

Miriam Shor Miriam Shor (born July 25, 1971) is an American actress. She is known for her performance in the rock musical ''Hedwig and the Angry Inch (musical), Hedwig and the Angry Inch'' and in the Hedwig and the Angry Inch (film), 2001 film adaptation of ...

as Beth *

Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program ''The Colbert Report'' from 2005 to ...

as "happy successful guy"

Production

Development

Brothers Adam and Kipp Marcus comprise the writing, producing and directing team behind this independent film, and Kipp also appears as the male lead. Kipp asked movie studios for their short-ends (unused film) at a cheap price to have enough film to shoot in 35mm.

Casting

Kipp had wanted Bernadette Peters for the role of his mother, Elise, but when her agent said that she was too busy, he sent her the entire script via fax. After meeting with Kipp she accepted the part.

Filming

Part of the movie was filmed at the Marcus' mother's house in

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census. History ...

Critical response

The ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' reviewer Lael Loewenstein wrote: "Smarter and more appealing than many other recent romantic comedies." Elvis Mitchell in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote: "The film's naïveté makes up for its rampant predictability."

Accolades

At the

AFI AFI may refer to: * ''Address-family identifier'', a 16 bit field of the Routing Information Protocol * Ashton Fletcher Irwin, an Australian drummer * AFI (band), an American rock band ** ''AFI'' (2004 album), a retrospective album by AFI rele ...

Fest, 1999, ''Let It Snow'' won awards for Best New Writing (Kipp Marcus) and Best Editing (

Joe Klotz Joseph “Joe” Klotz is an American film editor. He started his career as a television editor in New York City. Klotz' first feature film as editor, ''Let It Snow'', won the Best Editing prize at the 1999 Festival of the American Film Institute ...

). At the Deauville Film Festival, it received a nomination for Grand Special Prize, 2000. The film was an "Official Selection" at the 2000

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

References

External links

* * {{Adam Marcus 2001 films 2001 romantic comedy films American romantic comedy films Films directed by Adam Marcus 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language romantic comedy films