Film Review: "The Snowman" (2017).

"Soon the first snow will come, and then he will kill again." This is The Snowman. This psychological crime horror thriller film directed by Tomas Alfredson, adapted by Hossein Amini, Peter Straughan and Søren Sveistrup, and based on the novel of the same name by Jo Nesbø. The film follows Harry Hole who is investigating the disappearance of a woman on the first snow of winter when he realises that the case may be related to a Snowman.

According to Variety and Screen Rant, with the initial hope of creating a series in the vein of the Alex Cross film adaptations and the success of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), the adaptation went into development. At various points, Martin Scorsese, Morten Tyldum, Baltasar Kormákur were attached to direct, but Alfredson was ultimately hired to direct in 2014. By late January 2016, Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Val Kilmer, J. K. Simmons, Toby Jones, Chloë Sevigny, James D'Arcy, Genevieve O'Reilly, Jamie Clayton, and David Dencik were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in early April. Filming took place throughout Norway. Reshoots and additional filming took place during the spring of 2017. According to Alfredson, the film suffered from a problematic production, from a heavily-condensed pre-production to a rushed filming schedule, in which 10% to 15% of the screenplay remained unfilmed. This led to narrative problems when editing commenced: "Our shoot time in Norway was way too short, we didn't get the whole story with us and when we started cutting we discovered that a lot was missing. It's like when you're making a big jigsaw puzzle and a few pieces are missing so you don't see the whole picture." Alfredson also stated that he had a lack of time to prepare the film properly: "It happened very abruptly, suddenly we got notice that we had the money and could start the shoot in London." In addition, Kilmer suffered from an enlarged tongue during filming due to recent treatment for throat cancer. As such, many of his scenes were filmed without the actor visibly speaking as so to allow easier dubbing during post-production. To that end, all of Kilmer's dialogue is dubbed. Moreover, Jonny Greenwood was hired to create the score that was ultimately unused.

The film stars Fassbender, Ferguson, Gainsbourg, Kilmer, Simmons, Jones, Sevigny, D'Arcy, O'Reilly, Clayton, and Dencik. Despite a talent cast, the performances given did anything but justice to their literary counterparts. Fassbender and Ferguson did their best, but they're trampled by Alfredson's frustrating direction and a tasteless, lazily written screenplay. What a waste of talent indeed.

Detective Harry Hole makes his inauspicious cinematic debut in The Snowman, a clunky thriller that offers few surprises. The film is cut from the same cloth as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but the piece of material it uses has the uneven shape and dangling threads of a discarded remnant. It begins promisingly, then loses its direction as the demand for accelerated action overtakes narrative logic.

Simon says The Snowman receives:

Also, see my review for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.