Andrew Haigh is no stranger to capturing the queer experience. He has explored it in previous films such as All of Us Strangers, Weekend, and Looking: The Movie. His work is unapologetically queer while often balancing that identity with deeply emotional and dramatic storytelling. With his latest feature, A Long Winter, I was curious to see how he would portray a young man living in the closet in a rural Colorado mountain town during the 1950s. Unfortunately, we sadly get none of that kind of film.
The main problem with A Long Winter is that the film is having an identity crisis. On one hand, it wants to be an intimate family drama exploring the events leading up to and the aftermath of a tragedy. It attempts to recontextualize that tragedy while asking whether there was anything that could have been done to prevent it. When A Long Winter embraces this intimate family drama, it is at its strongest.
Watching Mike (Fred Hechinger, Thelma) and his father, Lester (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear), play a cat-and-mouse game as they avoid not only doing the dishes and cooking meals but also confronting what led to Louise’s (Caitriona Balfe, Outlander) disappearance is engrossing. Though this dynamic is woefully underdeveloped, there is still something compelling about watching the pair, snowed in together, slowly circle around the tragedy neither seems willing to confront. Furthermore, watching Mike try to make sense of his mother’s disappearance as he spends days wandering through the remote Colorado winter wilderness searching for her is both sad and endearing. He processes his grief in the only way a mountain man knows how: go for a hike.
However, at the same time, A Long Winter also wants to be a story about a queer sexual awakening. I understand that Haigh is a queer filmmaker, but the queer elements of this film feel completely out of place. Not only is the film’s central story ill-suited to exploring a sexual awakening, given that it is primarily concerned with grief and the loss of a loved one, but these queer elements ultimately add very little to the film.
If every scene featuring Mike’s sexual awakening were removed, virtually nothing about the story would change, other than perhaps making the film five to ten minutes shorter. The subplot feels less like an organic part of Mike’s journey and more like an idea the film feels obligated to explore. Not every film made by a queer filmmaker needs to offer commentary on the queer experience, and A Long Winter might have been stronger had it simply allowed its story of grief and family to stand on its own.
With that said, the film is still gorgeously shot. Filmed on location in the Canadian Rockies, standing in for the Colorado Rockies, A Long Winter is simply stunning to look at, with its beautiful winter pastel hues creating a striking visual palette. Furthermore, the performances from the entire cast are fantastic. Despite the script being the weakest component of the film, Haigh’s direction remains strong. He creates a cold, isolating, and hostile atmosphere in the Rockies that gives the film a palpable sense of unease.
Overall, A Long Winter is an aimless mess, with a genuinely compelling story buried beneath a plot that seems to be suffering from an identity crisis. The film tries to balance an intimate family drama about grief and loss with a coming-of-age story about Mike’s queer sexual awakening, but neither storyline is given enough room to fully develop. As a result, the film never finds a consistent rhythm or a clear sense of what it wants to be. Despite the beautiful cinematography, strong performances, and Haigh’s assured direction, the underdeveloped subplots ultimately distract from the more compelling story at the film’s center. What could have been a powerful and intimate family drama instead becomes a frustratingly unfocused film that never quite finds its footing.
My Rating: C+
A Long Winter comes to theatres January 15th.
A Long Winter had its international premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.
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