When a woman goes missing, Detectives Harry Hole and Katrine Bratt investigate, as he scarf is found on a snowman outside. The woman's disappearance also seems linked to other women who went missing or killed...
In 2013, Michael Fassbender starred in The Counselor. Although I liked it more than most, a number of critics were really disappointed in the film despite an impressive cast (along with Faasbender you had, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt. Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz), a talented director, Ridley Scott and written by acclaimed novelist Cormac McCarthy. Critics and audiences probably expected something much much better.
Move forward four years and we have Fassbender heading an impressive cast again, with a talented director, in a film based on a novel from a popular and well received writer. Add into the mix, Martin Scorsese (who was at one point going to direct the film) as an executive producer and legendary film editor, Thelma Schoonmaker working on the film, it is clear there is a lot of talent involved.
And yet despite this, the film has to be considered a disappointment.
There are many issues to this film, it is hard to know where to start. While it opens promisingly with a prologue before the main story in present day begins, it falls apart not long after. Below there is the trailer for the film.
Normally I put the trailer at the end, but I'm putting in in here now for a reason. Take a look.
Now, you have seen it, forget most of it. A number of scenes in that trailer don't make the finished film. A death scene as featured in this trailer has been completely re-shot. Certain dialogue scenes, which would have helped the film a bit, aren't in the film at all. The burning house scenes? Nope, not there either.
So with all that not in the film, what is left in there? Well, what is left is a very disjointed film that never sits well at all. In recent interviews, the director, Tomas Alfredson (director of the superb Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the classic, Let The Right One In) has suggested they didn't have enough time to make the film and as a result some scenes were never filmed. When you consider the talent involved with the film in front and behind the camera, a major U.S. studio (Universal) involved as well as a well respected production company (Working Title) you have to wonder how a production could get so amateurish. In the credits, there are two editors listed, Schoonmaker and Claire Simpson. But and I feel this is important, it is not a joint credit which would suggest they worked together. Instead they get separate ones, which would imply that one worked on the film then the other was brought on board to re-edit afterwards. But between them, they can't really save the film.
How important the scenes not filmed are to the overall story, one can only imagine. I've not read the novel of Jo Nesbo (The Snowman is, I believe the seventh novel featuring the Detective Harry Hole) so I don't know what the differences are between the novel and film and the three screenwriters here, Peter Straughan, Hossein Amini and Soren Sveistrup may have written one of the greatest scripts ever, but on the basis of the finished film we will never know due to the mess of a film that has been released.
And yet for all of the botched editing, the questionable casting decisions (what is going on with Val Kilmer's bizarre turn in the film???) the baffling story itself, the killer's motivation as giving in the film makes no sense at all, for all of this, there are some moments that are well done. Alfredson directs the film well, the cast headed by Fassbender as Harry Hole and including Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jonas Karlsson, as well as what turn out to be extended cameos from Toby Jones, J.K. Simmons, Chloe Sevigny, James D'Arcy as well as the previously mentioned Val Kilmer, for the most part the acting is fairly good, although for a character who is meant to be such a legend (Hole), Fassbender may be too young for the part.
So what is left? Well, we have a severely disjointed film, that is clearly missing parts of its story, that could have potentially been something special. And yet, I have to say that for all it's faults, much like the previously mentioned The Counselor I didn't hate it. I was never bored by it, I never found it dull and enjoyed it a little while watching it.
The Snowman is a mess of a film, but not a total disaster, mostly down to the talent involved in making it. But it certainly a disappointing film. I suspected what happened behind the scenes will make a much more interesting story than the finished film.
A wasted opportunity I feel.
Rating: 2/5
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