★★☆☆☆
By Robert Milarvie
The Snowman
Director: Tomas Alfredson
The Snowman promised so much – an A-list cast of Michael Fassbender (Shame), Rebecca Ferguson (The Girl on the Train) and J.K Simmons (Whiplash) within a ridiculous murder mystery plot. While the trailer presented an edgy return for the director responsible for excellent films such as Let The Right One In and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Snowman simply bites off more than it can chew.
Nordic Noir has been a fascinating area of global cinema. It reverses the typical film noir tropes of chiaroscuro lighting and claustrophobic urban spaces to something more akin to the Coen Brother’s Fargo and “film blanc.” The Millennium novel series The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo is seen as the most identifiable marker for Nordic Noir. Also, being an adaptation of the famous Scandinavian crime writer Jo Nesbo, Headhunters, it is strange how short the film falls from original expectation.
The plot basically concerns an alcoholic detective tracking down a serial killer whose calling card is a snowman. The ridiculousness of the premise was something that did not stall me at first since the absurdity could be used in a spooky and creepy manner.
That never materialised. Instead, the intensity the trailer had proposed melted away as the film stumbled towards its final act. The story attempts to explore themes of family and revenge but again they are never truly fleshed out – there never is any meaningful pay off into why these themes are explored.
The Snowman offered so much: a ludicrous premise that could have been warped into something disturbing, a director who has excellent credentials and has used the environment of Scandinavia to its fullest extent and an unbelievable array of Hollywood stars helmed by the wonderful Michael Fassbender.
Now just to reiterate, I am a huge Michael Fassbender fan, and like James McAvoy, I think he is brilliant and usually the best part of any film he participates in. For The Snowman however, he looks disinterested throughout and his brutal, enigmatic energy is never focalised to its purest extent.
The constant use of ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) became intolerable at around the 35 minute mark. It is understandable for a feature film, shooting many sequences outside in harsh weather conditions, to re-record certain lines of dialogue to remove background noise. Yet not a scene goes by where a character may walk off screen and an unexpected line of dialogue emerges. It sounds petty but after half an hour, the feeling that the script was only half-written before shooting began becomes palpable.
The Snowman is a strange commodity. Trying so hard to be Insomnia, both original and remake, it attempts to balance grounded themes within a crime thriller genre. Graphic imagery and a disinterested cast culminate into a lethargic Jonathan Creek rip-off.
Safe to say it won’t last the winter.
For more from Robert Milarvie follow @notherView
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