Winter Passing is a 2005 American comedy-drama film directed by playwright Adam Rapp and starring Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrell, Amelia Warner, Amy Madigan, and Dallas Roberts.

Reese, who happens to be the daughter of a famous author named Don Holdin, is approached by a publishing agent who offers her $100,000 for a series of old letters written between her reclusive father and her late mother.

When Reese learns that the kitten she rescued from the streets is dying of feline leukemia, she drowns it and buys a bus ticket to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to retrieve the letters.

Reese initially clashes with the doting Shelly (whom she accuses of sleeping with her father) but eventually accepts her after learning of the death of her parents and of Don's support of her during a near-fatal illness endometriosis.

The experience helps the father and daughter find closure, and Reese buries the box of letters in place of the novel before returning to New York.

Salinger, Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Ted Hughes and Ernest Hemingway as possible inspirations for Reese's parents.

"[6] Robert Koehler of Variety gave a negative review but wrote positively of Will Ferrell, saying though his presence may not appear to fit with the film's serious themes, "he wisely eschews his familiar shtick for a register he hasn’t displayed before, playing a guy who’s set aside his dreams to take care of another person.

Burr wrote, "Reese is not a particularly likable woman-child, and she can be brutal to people and things she no longer has use for (that includes herself), but Rapp has written into her a spark of tenderness that's on the verge of going out forever.