Dead Of Winter (2025)

Hit by a blizzard, a grief stricken loner (Emma Thompson) gets lost in the backroads near a Minnesota lake and stops for help at a remote cabin. It is there she discovers a young woman (Laurel Marsden) kidnapped by a desperate couple (Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca). Directed by Brian Kirk (21 BRIDGES). Although the story takes place in the wintery backwoods of Minnesota, the film was actually filmed in Finland and Germany. As the fisherwoman who finds herself beyond her depth in a kidnapping case, Thompson is very good and even does a spot on American accent. This isn't the kind of movie one expects to see Thompson in but I can see why she might have been attracted to it. However, it's those very things that attracted her that are the film's worst sections. This is a thriller that loses its tension because of too many flashbacks about the young Thompson's character (played by Gaia Wise, Thompson's real life daughter). The downbeat (but still sentimental) ending does the movie no favors either. With Cuan Hosty Blaney and Brian F. O'Byrne.