The Snowman (2017) Review!!!

Synopsis – Detective Harry Hole investigates the disappearance of a woman whose pink scarf is found wrapped around an ominous-looking snowman.

My Take – Personally I believe, films based on serial killer are in a genre of its own, mixing terror with intrigue is not an easy job to pull off, something which directors & studios in Hollywood continue to divulge in without much success for the past few decades, well of course, the Hannibal series & director David Fincher and his accomplished works (Se7en, Zodiac, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) are an exception. However, when it was first announced that an adaptation of Norwegian author Jo Nesbø‘s bestselling serial killer based novel was on its way with director Martin Scorsese attached, my expectations sky rocketed, like has ever disappointed? However, despite Scorsese passing on the directorial duties (instead billed as an executive producer) to another ideal candidate in the form of Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, who previously with his elegant vampire film Let the Right One In and his sublime take on the spy drama Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy proved he’s a director of great subtlety and an innate skill for patiently unfurling plot while digging deep into the film’s complex characters, backed with dream cast consisting the likes of Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, J.K. Simmons and Toby Jones, it just didn’t seem like anything could go wrong! Yet, the film is a complete mess. Yes, this is a film that definitely had the makings of being great, but somehow seems to get lost along the way and ends up not only being underwhelming, but also a rather amateurish and messy attempt as if something clearly went wrong during its production. It’s really disappointing to see a talent like director Alfredson handle a story that is riddled with plot holes, erratic editing, awkward dialogue and that’s merely a handful of the countless issues here.

Based on the seventh book in the crime series by author Jo Nesbø, the story follows Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender), a drunk and depressed but brilliant detective, who is struggling to figure out how to navigate the landscape of his failed relationship with Rakel (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who has moved on with Dr. Mathias Lund-Helgesen (Jonas Karlsson), a successful cosmetic surgeon and his fatherly love for her teenage son, Oleg (Michael Yates). However, when a women mysteriously disappears, Harry is drawn into the case by Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson), a new recruit, which leads them to believe this could be the reappearance of an elusive serial killer who builds snowmen outside the homes of his victims as a calling card. While Harry begins to connect dots to the identity killer, he realizes Katrine is also secretly working through a potential political scandal which involves the Oslo bid for the Winter Games, run by Arve Støp (J.K. Simmons), a sexually rapacious businessman and a nine year old case from Bergen, which involved detective Gert Rafto (Val Kilmer), who at the time was investigating a murder with the similar ammo. In the vein of other adaptations of Norway based crime thrillers like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the film aims for a similar sort of dark and moody aesthetic. Indeed the environment is a very important part of the film and from the very beginning, director Tomas Alfredson emphasizes the beautiful, rugged and icy weather of Norway as a visual aesthetic of the film. It’s not just there to capture beautiful scenery, but also set the tone for its icy and sordid story. Sadly though, the film doesn’t quite live up to all of its potential with a rather inconsistent film-making approach and a botched story. One of the defining issues with the film is just how little it makes sense narratively. After a very odd opening, the film begins slowly & stays that way for some time, with nothing important happening. We are introduced to a few characters and subplots, who have little to no effect to the whole story-line. Followed by some effort to build Harry’s character who ticks almost every cliché in the book by being a troubled genius whose notable cases are the stuff of legend; now is a raging alcoholic who regularly passes out in the freezing snow and wakes up in parks in the dead of winter. Sadly he does very little to bring any of these tropes to life, paying lip service to the alcoholism, and never really doing anything in the way of actual detective work. It’s also hinted at in a scene with his boss that his downward spiral was the result of, well something, but what it was is never elaborated on. It’s odd to give so many nods to a previous installment that, in fairness, a large number of the general audience (like myself) probably haven’t read hereby adding more confusion to the mess. Once the serial killer comes into play, the film is in constant hurry. The scenes are shunted from drawing themselves out and embracing the viewer. This is from the director of 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and co-written by Peter Straughan and Hossein Amini, who adapted Drive – both features that preserve an excellent sense of patience, this one is quite a disappointment in comparison. Director Alfredson loses some elements that would have really worked on screen, while trying to shoehorn in other themes that apparently took six books to develop, with the magic of both the main character and the story completely lost. Had the film stripped back the plot and been more focused, it could have worked. It doesn’t help that the key motif – the snowman – looks ridiculous on screen, rather than terrifying.

I compared this film to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo earlier not only because of its setting, but in the way it tries to shock you and make you feel uncomfortable. Sadly, while the two cinematic adaptations of that story both did a sterling job in creating discomfort through its story, this film prefers to throw these shock elements at you in a way that doesn’t always fit in. Indeed certain scenes appear to be in the film just to add pure shock value more than anything else. As a crime thriller, the film does a sterling job of keeping a lot of its twists hidden and ensuring you can’t figure out who the killer is too early. The only problem is that the script achieves a lot of this by throwing many rather unnecessary plot points at you. I think films are more than welcome to find ways of distracting audiences from some of the more obvious clues that get created along the way, but when these detours repeatedly take you away for several minutes at the time and add no value to the story, it adds up to a lot of wasted fluff that lengthened the film unnecessarily. Which is a pity, because if you take away the unnecessary plot additions and some of these inconsistencies, you’d be left with a gripping thriller that is every bit as edgy as the trailer led you to believe. Frequently it’s simply not possible to follow the plot because much of it isn’t there. The connective tissue required for any film, but especially a murder mystery, is so often missing. Harry and Katrine arrive at locations with absolutely no explanation, apparently following clues kept hidden from the audience. They’ll drop in at a fancy society do and find a suspect, but why they went there is anybody’s guess. Characters are introduced as part of the mystery – notably a young woman locked in a strange house – and then they disappear, unexplained. It plays as if entire scenes are missing. Even individual scenes jump around madly, edited so that characters cross rooms in fractions of a second. Sure, it’s clear from the beginning that the film shouldn’t be taken seriously but as a bit of campy fun. And this does work for a time, even given its imperfections. But then it gets silly and convoluted, particularly when J.K. Simmons‘s Arve Stop gets involved as a creepy businessman who may or may not be supporting an abortion clinic. Also, the filmmakers chose to jump between the past and the present without any indication of timeline or relevance to the story which is jarring to say the least. It takes far too long to truly establish where the story is going and leaving the whole film rather uneven, for example the scenes from the past featuring an unrecognizable Val Kilmer as a detective investigating the initial occurrences of this serial killer seem so different in tone from the rest of the film you wouldn’t be surprised if it was directed by someone else. The audio and sound mixing for the majority of the film is excellent and tight throughout, but in these scenes it appears that Kilmer’s voice has been dubbed over badly so that what is being said is clearly out of sync with the actor’s mouth. It’s as distracting from these parts of the film as they are from the rest of the film. Sure, there are some favorable aspects. Although a lot of the story is stupid, the fun is never lost & one can still enjoy this film, especially horror fans as director Alfredson adopts a 80s-style approach in some scenes – but these are short-lived moments. It’s frustrating to see how the film is suffocated by its own lack of originality, so archetypal in its execution, adhering so stringently to the tropes of the genre at hand. Talking about this stellar cast full of fantastic actors, it seems like Michael Fassbender seems to be on a roll with box office flops and unfortunately this film will most likely be another one. The actor is undoubtedly one of the most talented actors working currently, but his ability to pick the right screenplay is questionable. Here too, he fits the role like a glove and turns in another solid performance. Rebecca Ferguson tries hard to work around her severely underdeveloped character and managed to be likable. For some reason, Chloë Sevigny received a very high billing in the cast for a blink and you’ll miss it role. It’s almost cruel seeing Val Kilmer perform, who due to a tumor in his throat, has left him speech impaired for some time, as a result, his voice has been horribly dubbed over. In smaller roles, J.K. Simmons, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, James D’Arcy and Jonas Karlsson are alright. On the whole, ‘The Snowman’ is a poorly handled potboiler which despite its ambitious scope ends being one dimensional and inconsistent.