A well-written, well-acted ensemble that I didn't guess until the closing credits (that include photos of the characters' prototypes) to be an obvious roman à clef, that added a little depth to what I'd just seen. The only flaw was the direction was a little clunky at times so that the pace flagged here and there. But overall it's a charming film. Last week I watched a documentary on the highly-regarded hit sitcom "Cheers", and A SNOWY DAY IN OAKLAND is not unlike "Cheers," with a cast of characters who all have their flaws, but you like almost all of them anyway, partly because of those flaws. SNOWY, like "Cheers", even has a head-butting couple who seem to still love each other despite their acting otherwise (Sam and Diane in "Cheers") and a chatterbox postal worker who grows on you despite the chatterbox eccentricity (Jeanette in SNOWY, Cliff Clavin in "Cheers").

This movie had good intentions and likable characters, but the script had major problems, particularly at the end. Latrice, a psychologist, decides to leave San Francisco and return to the neighborhood she left when she was an 11-year-old. She wants to live among "her people", not stay in a relationship with a cheating boyfriend, and not stay counseling only self-absorbed, wealthy clients with trivial problems.

"Her people" do not readily accept her. They wonder what in the world a beautiful black woman, who obviously has money, is doing opening a counseling office in their struggling neighborhood. Doesn't she know people like them don't share their emotional problems with strangers? Well, it turns out about everyone ends up on her couch telling her their problems. They have real problems, too.

A major problem that soon arises for all of them is the owner of the block plans to evict everyone, and sell the land to a company that needs it for a parking lot. Latrice is the only one he can't evict because she has a lease, not a rental agreement. When the landlord goes to visit Latrice is where the script really starts to fail. She tells him she will never let him break her lease, but bizarrely ends up whispering that in his ear, even though they are alone in her office.

The nosy mail woman sees this through the front window, thinks Latrice is actually kissing him, and tells everyone on the block she is in cahoots with the landlord! The only thing that comes of this incident is like 60 seconds of anger at Latrice during a neighborhood meeting at the church, before she clears things up. The point of that misunderstanding?

The ending of the story goes weird, too, when all the main characters in the film, including Latrice's cheating boyfriend, burst out of a building on the street and start dancing in the street. Huh? Is the movie over or something? Next, short scenes are shown where wonderful things happen to various characters, including one winning the lottery. After those scenes, the movie obviously was over, and it's too bad the script failed so miserably, with all of those tacked on happy endings.

A Snowy Day in Oakland was a solid film about a block of Oakland entrepreneurs and a church minister who tried to live their lives and run their businesses or church in an ethical manner.

The strength of this film was its cast and the comedy that was prevalent throughout the film. On the other hand, this movie did a good job of weaving through the comedy and dramatic aspects of its script.

I'm glad I saw the film because it made me laugh and it showed that amid all the hate and danger in this world, that people can still come together and help each other as well as get along with each other.