The Snowman Review

The Snowman

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, J.K. Simmons, Chloe Sevigny, Charlotte Gainsbourg

Director: Tomas Alfredson

Based on the novel "The Snowman" by Jo Nesbo.

I think Tomas Alfredson is a very talented director. He jumped into my sights with Let the Right One In and continued to impress with his English language debut Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I also love a good whodunnit. So between his involvement, a top notch cast, and a genre very much in my wheelhouse, I was very much looking forward to this film. Did it live up to expectations? Not even close.

The film follows alcoholic, brilliant and unfortunately named Detective Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) as he and newcomer Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson), investigate the disappearances of women whose heads later turn up on top of snowmen. Hole and Bratt soon discover similar disappearances/murders have been happening for decades. Local philanthropist Arve Stop (J.K. Simmons), who is attempting to bring the Winter Sports World Cup to Oslo, soon emerges as having a possible connection to the case. Is he behind the brutal murders of these women or is something more sinister at play?

I almost feel like my description of the film makes it sound more thrilling than it is. I wasn't able to read the book before the movie came out and I don't have much of an impulse to pick it up except to see what could have possibly gone wrong in the adaptation. It's possible that the source material is bad and the movie reflects that. I hesitate to accept that though as one of Nesbo's novels was turned into the exceptional Headhunters back in 2011.

Maybe it's due to Alfredson being rushed through production and not being able to shoot 10-15% of the script causing the film to be cobbled together in post. I haven't figured out if this is him just making an excuse for making a bad movie. There were scenes involving Chloe Sevigny's character that were in the trailer that didn't make it into the final film, so who knows if those will ever see the light of day or what happened to them. Surely they could have brought at least a little excitement to the film. While the missing 10-15% could have maybe helped, I'm not sure if the film would have been better staying in novel form. There are definitely some things I feel would have worked better on page than they do on screen. A key example is the killer leaves snowmen at the scenes of all his crimes. It's just as silly as it sounds. There is also no sense of mystery or tension, making it very easy to figure out the identity of the killer.

Despite having engaging performers as headliners, the film just feels dull. I'm okay with slow moving films, as I seem to be one of the only people I know who found Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to be a thrilling masterpiece. That film also had some engaging actors attached, as well as one of the same writers of this film, so I know Alfredson is capable of pulling good performances. Everyone here seems bored.

Val Kilmer returns to the big screen, however his scenes are notable for the wrong reasons. While they did a lot of fixing in post, there can be no excuse for the atrocious ADR that is used for his character. It's obvious that it isn't his voice and there are points where it isn't even synced properly. To say it pulled me out of the movie is an understatement. While I'm guessing many of the un-filmed material revolved around his character, there is no clear explanation of his connection to the story.

I could keep going, as there are things I haven't even touched on yet, but the film was so much of a disappointment I think I've spent too much time on it already.

D-