The Snowman: Movie Review

Although the year still has a couple months left to go, I feel pretty confident that “The Snowman” will make its’ way onto my worst films of 2017 list.  This is a crime-thriller with absolutely no thrills. Not only does it lack any sort of intensity, but “The Snowman” is about as mind-numbingly boring as its’ title.

Directed by Tomas Alfredson (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) and based on the novel by Jo Nesbø, “The Snowman” follows detective Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) as he works with fellow detective Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson) to uncover the identity of a killer who uses snowmen as his calling card.

There are a whole lot of problems with this film, most of them are with the narrative.  Even the filmmaker himself has come forward before the release of “The Snowman” acknowledging the issues.  Although this is essentially a mystery, it doesn’t help when the identity of the killer becomes obvious to the audience within the film’s first hour.  Although I have never read the source material, it felt like there was a whole lot of story left out of the film.  The only positive thing I can say about “The Snowman” is that the Norway setting is stunning at times.

“The Snowman” features a great supporting cast but Val Kilmer needed to be completely removed from the final cut.  I completely understand that the actor had been battling oral cancer but he was just not in the right condition to take on the role, even if it was a minor one. The rest of the supporting cast which includes Toby Jones and J.K. Simmons are given nothing of interest to do.

The shame of it for me is that I love a good crime-thriller, but unfortunately we don’t see many mid-budget theatrical releases anymore, which has all but wiped out this type of film in multiplexes.  “The Snowman” is filled with talent behind and in front of the camera, but none of them were able to deliver anything worth watching.

By: Marc Ferman