Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman are two actors who can make even thin roles watchable, so their presence in Snow Cake is a plus. Weaver plays an autistic woman, Vivienne, and Rickman is Alex, the outsider brought to her door after picking up her hitchhiking daughter (Emily Hampshire, pictured). He ends up staying longer than expected and Carrie Ann Moss, as the sexy next-door-neighbour, completes the triangle. It's a film with a surprisingly light touch, given director Marc Evans's previous thrillers. Compared with Rickman as a grouchy Englishman, Weaver has a harder job convincing as Vivienne, with her tics and obsessions, and doesn't transcend her star status. Still, Snow Cake rises above sentimentality for a quality drama.