The Snowman (2017)
Detective Harry Hole investigates the disappearance
of a woman whose pink scarf is found wrapped around an ominous-looking
snowman.
Director:
Tomas Alfredson
When an elite crime squad's lead detective investigates the
disappearance of a victim on the first snow of winter, he fears an
elusive serial killer may be active again. With the help of a brilliant
recruit, the cop must connect decades-old cold cases to the brutal new
one if he hopes to outwit this unthinkable evil before the next
snowfall.
Language:
EnglishRelease Date:
20 October 2017 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
El muñeco de nieve See more »Company Credits
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Color:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1Did You Know?
Trivia
For a while, an unofficial movie poster created by a film student circulated on the internet. See more »Quotes
Katrine Bratt: [from the trailer] I think it's the falling snow that sets the killer offKatrine Bratt: Cutting things up that's what a child does to maintain order
See more »
Connections
Featured in Crime Connections: Episode #1.4 (2012)
Michael Fassbender stars as a troubled detective tracking down a serial
killer in this screen version of Jo Nesbo's best-seller from 'Tinker
Tailor Soldier Spy' director Tomas Alfredson.
The weather outside is frightful in The Snowman, the
long-gestating movie adaptation of Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo's
2007 literary smash hit, which has sold in the millions. Directed by
Swedish left-field hitmaker Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy),
this is a classy, polished production with a starry international cast
led by Michael Fassbender. It was previously earmarked for Martin
Scorsese, who now has an executive producer credit.
But if production partners Universal and Working Title are hoping for
a Scandi noir blockbuster to rival David Fincher's 2011 version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, they are heading for disappointment. For all its high-caliber talent mix, The Snowman
is a largely pedestrian affair, turgid and humorless in tone. The cast
share zero screen chemistry, much of the dialogue feels like a clunky
first draft and the wearily familiar plot is clogged with clumsy loose
ends. While Nesbo's novel was a pulpy page-turner, formulaic but
effective, Alfredson and his team have somehow managed to drain it of
tension.
Of course, countless mediocre crime yarns have scored big at the box
office. Director, author and star probably have a sufficiently large
following between them to make The Snowman into a commercial
hit, but nobody comes out of this production with their reputations
enhanced. Critical reaction will be frosty, and Universal's reported
hopes of launching a new franchise seem likely to melt away. Rolling out
across much of Europe and the Middle East this week, Alfredson's chilly
killer thriller is set to open Oct. 20 in the U.S.
A killer is targeting the young mothers of Oslo, building a sinister
snowman as a calling card before he strikes. Maverick detective Harry
Hole (Fassbender) is officially between cases, but he inveigles his way
onto this one by shadowing a new arrival at the city's police
department, Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson). Following a long trail of
clues, the pair expand the investigation to include different cities and
unsolved murders stretching back decades, soon realizing they have a
serial killer on their hands. Their inquiries turn up murky connections
between wealthy industrialist Arve Stop (J.K. Simmons), creepy doctor
Idar Vetleson (David Dencik) and boozy detective Gert Rafto (Val
Kilmer), who died years before in an apparent shotgun suicide.
In parallel with his police duties, Harry is also struggling to stay
on good terms with his estranged ex-wife Rakel (Charlotte Gainsbourg),
his sulky teenage stepson Oleg (Michael Yates) and Rakel's new partner
Mathias (Jonas Karlsson). But as the murder investigation deepens, the
killer gets Harry's family in his sights, and their deadly cat-and-mouse
game turns personal. Meanwhile, Katrine is revealed to have a secret
history that throws her interest in the case into question.
Fassbender plays the kind of rule-breaking antihero who ticks every
cliche on the flawed-genius screen cop checklist. Harry's crime-fighting
instincts are brilliant but unorthodox, which means his stuffy bosses
indulge him while female co-workers find him dangerously irresistible.
He may be too much of a self-absorbed drunk to keep his promises to his
ex-wife and stepson, but both still adore him anyway. He is a
chain-smoking alcoholic who routinely passes out on park benches, yet
strangely still possesses the athletic stamina to chase villains across
vast frozen landscapes wearing nothing but tastefully understated Nordic
knitwear.
In its favor, The Snowman looks magnificent. Norway is a
gift to Alfredson, with his strong eye for snow-covered landscapes and
stylishly bare modernist interiors. Cinematographer Dion Beebe and
production designer Maria Djurkovic transform the homely urban geography
of Oslo into a Nordic Gotham City of deep shadows, towering churches
and cavernous municipal halls, while the vast hinterland beyond the city
becomes a majestic winter wonderland of frozen lakes and snowy peaks.
The Snowman also boasts a fine cast, though its leaden
script and perfunctory characterization leave scant room for subtle
performances. Arriving on set direct from Assassin's Creed,
Fassbender coasts through the movie with his roguish charm on autopilot.
Ferguson wrings a little more complexity from her traumatized avenging
angel, but Gainsbourg wanders through her scenes in a daze, as if she
has accidentally stumbled onto Alfredson's shoot en route to her latest
self-lacerating encounter with Lars von Trier. Simmons, Chloe Sevigny
and Toby Jones are all underused in glorified cameos. And Kilmer's minor
role is just plain bizarre, with his raddled appearance and mannered
dialogue that seems to be overdubbed in places.
Screenwriters Hossein Amini, Peter Straughan and Soren Sveistrup
stick fairly closely to Nesbo's plot, with a few minor changes and
shifts of emphasis. Thus The Snowman only has one major secret
to keep us in suspense: the identity of the killer. Even for viewers
unfamiliar with the book, this not-so-shocking surprise becomes pretty
easy to call about midway through the story, leaving Alfredson to fill
another hour with increasingly silly red herrings and pointless blind
alleys.
In a movie that had more layers, deeper questions and more fully
evolved characters, such predictable touches would not necessarily be
fatal lapses. But The Snowman does not do subtext. Indeed, its
by-the-numbers script barely qualifies as text. When the killer's
risible psychological motivation is finally revealed, it feels as if the
screenwriters began reading Freud for Dummies, but did not even get to the end. Alfredson has yet to make a terrible film, and The Snowman is certainly not terrible, but it falls way short of what a superior big-budget thriller should deliver.
FINAL RATING: 7/10 for the genre and 4/10 overall. But most important here is the genre rate where the movie represents a really good one.
Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
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