Winter Snow Nature103

By Li Hui and Maxim Duncan QIANTUN, China (Reuters) - Two years short of 70, Zhang Guosheng spends his days caring for an 81-year-old fellow villager - washing his clothes, bringing meals to his bed, and keeping him company - a routine he'll keep up until he himself needs the type of care he is now giving. "Living here is better than staying at home alone. We help each other and have a common language," said the spritely Zhang, an enthusiastic dancer. "We are very happy here. ...

If Freddie Quell came back from World War II as an unhinged animal, Jimmy Picard (Benicio Del Toro) is the polar opposite, an intensely quiet but no less wounded man, who is out of sorts in post-war America. But he is also a Native American, which brings to his life a whole set of experiences (especially at the time) foreign to common understanding, giving his plight an extra layer of complexity. And it's within this milieu that Arnaud Desplechin presents the true story "Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian)," a picture that meanders and focuses far too heavily on its subtitle, rather than on its two lead characters, who are presented with promise, but are ultimately left underdeveloped. When we first meet Jimmy P., it's three years after the war, and he's at his sister's home, suffering deeply. He's plagued by crippling headaches, bouts of blindness and hearing loss, and tremors that leave him clutching the walls to stay standing. He is soon admitted to the Winter Hospital...