THE SNOWMAN (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

the snowman (2017) movie

Genre              |   Thriller Horror

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   119 minutes

Released         |   19 October 2017

cast

Michael Fassbender as Harry Hole
Rebecca Ferguson as Katrine
​Chloe Sevigny as Sylvia

director

Tomas Alfedson

writer

Hossein Amini
​Peter Straughan
​Søren Sveistrup

cinematographer

​​Dion Beebe

music

​Marco Beltrami

film editor

Claire Simpson
​Thelma Schoonmaker

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box office result

Worldwide             $​43,084,060  

Australia                 $​1,222,601

North America       $​6,700,035

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the best dialogue

Harry Hole: I need a case... to work on.
Gunnar Hagen: I apologize for Oslo's low murder rate.

Katrine Bratt: I've read your case files in college
Harry Hole: They date back that far?

Harry Hole: Are you all right?
Rakel: Kill... kill him!

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THE SNOWMAN (2017) MOVIE IMAGES

THE SNOWMAN (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

​When an elite crime squad’s lead detective (Fassbender) 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 (Ferguson), 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.

THE SNOWMAN (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 7 November 2017
Pop ​Movee Rating ⭐

How do good filmmakers sometimes get it so wrong? 

That is the question viewers will be asking as they exit the cinema at the end of Tomas Alfredson’s feature film adaptation of Jo Nesbo’s novel, THE SNOWMAN. Starring Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Ferguson, their talent alone should be enough to carry this serial killer thriller; as a pair of mismatched Oslo Detectives who are trying to put together the clues that will lead them to the identity of a killer whose calling card is a Snowman. 

Where does the responsibility for the 119 minute muddle that is THE SNOWMAN lie? 

Director Tomas Alfredson is the obvious starting place. The Swedish director is responsible for bringing the 2008 version of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN In and the 2011 version of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY to audiences, so viewers familiar with his work know that he is capable of much better than what is on offer in THE SNOWMAN. In addition to those films, he also has an extensive career in Swedish film and television production that dates back to the late 1980s. This is not some film dilettante; he’s immeasurably experienced to handle the creative demands of a $30 million movie. More clues are required…

Søren Sveistrup. Hossein Amini. Peter Straughan. These are not household names, but they certainly have some resonance within the international film community. Collectively they have written commercially successful and critically-awarded movies and TV shows, such as DRIVE, the aforementioned version of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY,  MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN and THE KILLING. It’s an eclectic mix of scripts, but none of those films could be accused of being “uninteresting”... Can such a talented group of storytellers be so thwarted by Nesbo’s source material that the best they could come up is this shambolic mess? 

As the movie progressed, my mind flashed back to early 1998 and a not dissimilar movie with a not dissimilar problem, Robert Altman’s THE GINGERBREAD MAN. This film has been one of my least favourite since I paid money to see it at the cinema. A stellar cast, based on a John Grisham story, but a film so devoid of sensible plotting or interesting characterization that it became an exercise in intellectual curiosity to stick with it to the end to see just how bad it got. 

THE SNOWMAN is much the same. As a viewer, it becomes hard to keep up with what’s going on as the story jumps all over the place, including flashback sequences that drop from nowhere, explain little and disappear just as quickly. It’s not just the plot either… The dialogue is simply awful. Some of the problem is a result of poorly written exchanges between characters. 

Another part of the problem is the shot framing that Alfredson and Cinematographer Dion Beebe use to show these exchanges. Quite frankly, it’s hard to believe that Beebe shot this movie. This is the same person who won an Oscar for CHICAGO, worked with Michael Mann on COLLATERAL & MIAMI VICE and captured the multi-angle, time-tripping shots required for the Tom Cruise & Emily Blunt Sci-Fi Thriller EDGE OF TOMORROW. Yet again, we’re not talking about a “Johnny come lately”. This is an experienced filmmaker who knows how to light, frame and capture the moving image.

Thelma Schoonmaker. Claire Simpson. Once again, not household names, but Schoonmaker has been Martin Scorsese’s Film Editor since she worked with him on RAGING BULL in 1980. She has won three Oscars, countless other awards and is much a part of Scorsese’s critical success as the director himself. Claire Simpson may not have received the same kind of recognition as Schoonmaker throughout her career, but she’s also an Oscar winner, for her work on PLATOON, editing for Oliver Stone, Robert Towne and Scott. It’s hard to believe that these two filmmakers, with their depth of experience, weren’t able to build a more cohesive film from the material that Alfredson captured during his principal photography. 

Alfredson has admitted that he didn’t get the material he needed when filming. The director has   divulged that up to 15% of the script went unshot. Knowing this sheds some light upon the disjointed feel of THE SNOWMAN, but it begs the question…

Thomas, what were you doing?

Telling the world that you failed to do your job on a multi-million dollar project is no small admission. What it suggests is THE SNOWMAN was a difficult production from the outset and only became  harder. Perhaps there is a clue to all of this in looking at Martin Scorsese’s involvement in the production. Scorsese is an Executive Producer on THE SNOWMAN, but he was originally going to direct the film. After Scorsese pulled out of directing the film, Morten Tyldum and Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur were both approached but passed on the project. The reluctance of potential directors to commit to THE SNOWMAN suggests there was a general understanding that this was going to be a challenging project to undertake. Perhaps Alfredson believed otherwise and felt he was up to the challenge. As it turns out, he wasn’t.

THE SNOWMAN is a poorly constructed movie that fails to capture the spirit or intensity of Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole character or the novel upon which the film is based. If THE SNOWMAN is anything to go by, it may be some time before audiences get to see what Hole’s next feature film case turns out to be.

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