Author: Tina Noma

Andrew Haigh’s ‘A Long Winter’ Premieres at TIFF: A Quietly Queer Coming-of-Age Story Set in 1950s Colorado

English writer-director Andrew Haigh, known for Weekend and All of Us Strangers, returns with A Long Winter, a film that explores the heartbreak of realizing our parents aren’t who we imagined—and how one might grow from that agony. The film, which centers on a quietly queer protagonist, had its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Plot Adapted from Colm Tóibín’s Short Story

Adapted from Colm Tóibín’s short story of the same name, A Long Winter unfolds in the brutally cold mountains of Colorado during the early 1950s. Fred Hechinger (Fear Street) stars as Mike, who enjoys a blissful existence maintaining the house and farm animals alongside his younger brother (Kit Connor of Heartstopper), his mother Louise (Caitríona Balfe of Outlander), and his father Lester (Ebon Moss-Bachrach of The Bear).

That stability fractures when Mike’s brother takes a job far away. Mike witnesses another side of his parents—one tarnished by regret and recrimination. As another winter approaches, Louise’s smiles turn to snarls. Her empty water glass reeks of alcohol, and her fury at her hard-headed husband boils over. One day, she wanders off with their dog Sandy. Hours later, a blizzard turns the familiar hills into treacherous, frigid white.

For months, Mike searches for her—in the not-so-near town, an abandoned mine, the home of his posh uncle (Martin Freeman), and again and again across the long, blank expanse of the mountain. In his search, he reflects and comes to a better understanding of who his mother was, who his father is, and what he wants for his own life. Along the way, he forms a connection with Jimmy (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai of Reservation Dogs), an abandoned teen Lester brings on to do the “women’s work” on the property that neither he nor his son has any talent for.

Fred Hechinger Delivers a Career-Best Performance

Hechinger first caught attention in 2021 as the chaotically charismatic Simon in Fear Street: Part One – 1994, bringing Matthew Lillard vibes with unapologetically gawky confidence and sharp comedic timing. He earned praise as Quinn on White Lotus Season 1, then appeared in a string of diverse 2024 roles: a doting grandson in Thelma, a friendly face amid abusive staff in Nickel Boys, a villain opposite Joseph Quinn in Gladiator II, and Dmitri “Chameleon” Smerdyakov in Kraven The Hunter.

In A Long Winter, Hechinger packs away his goofy grin for a restrained yet brilliantly alive performance. In the first act, Mike recounts missing home while away for contracted work, his voice carrying a folksy touch and simple word choice. But after weeks without his mother and months without his brother, with Jimmy in the bed beside him, Mike’s accent softens and he uses words like “cope”—feeling out of place in his father’s idea of mountain masculinity. These diction shifts reflect how Mike’s vision for himself becomes less reliant on his father’s example, even as his is the only one around.

Supporting Cast and Directorial Comparisons

Moss-Bachrach’s portrayal of the tough guy father frustrates at times; his bluster feels flaccid, making the years his wife submitted to his demands perplexing. In scenes facing off with Hechinger, the film struggles when Moss-Bachrach cannot match the younger actor’s onscreen intensity, even though Hechinger plays openness rather than rage.

Keen performances by Balfe, Freeman, and Woon-A-Tai bolster the vision of this world—cold but wondrous. Hechinger, previously a stellar supporting player, proves his leading man chops by shouldering the film in scenes of delicate dialogue, earnest confrontation, and solitary moments against the wilderness that has likely consumed his lost mother.

A Sister Film to ‘All of Us Strangers’

A Long Winter works as a sister film to All of Us Strangers. Both center on a gay man learning to trust himself and his desire while making sense of who his parents are or were. Where All of Us Strangers encapsulates the first stage of such scary journeys with ghost story elements that make it a soft horror movie, A Long Winter‘s arc is less rigorous because Mike—unlike Andrew Scott’s hero—is not alone.

All of Us Strangers plays like a haunted house movie because of its protagonist’s isolation. While Haigh brings some surreal and spooky elements to A Long Winter, it isn’t horror. Instead, he lets the reality of a scene bend to reflect the yearning of his hero, who’s coming to realize that death—like winter—is a part of life that is unavoidable but not inherently bad.

There’s a profound maturity in Haigh’s latest as he trusts Hechinger to infuse mood and growth without genre flourishes or the actor’s signature mirth. It is not a tearjerker, but a rapturous and meditative look at growing up and growing into ourselves.