The Snowman (2017)
2017
R
119 Minutes
Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller
Detective Harry Hole investigates the disappearance of a woman whose pink scarf is found wrapped around an ominous looking snowman.
User Review
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The Snowman fails to heat up as a thriller and slowly melts away into mediocrity. Ahhhh what a missed opportunity this was! All the right components were there, yet somehow it completely missed the mark. A detective, with an alcohol problem, joins a newbie officer in investigating missing women. They soon realise that a pattern emerges and are embroiled in a chase with a sadistic serial killer. We've seen this a hundred times before, there is now no room for amateur thrillers anymore. None. Unfortunately for The Snowman, it is just that. Amateurish. Honestly the only memorable element that the film provides is a snowman being left at every crime scene. Some fully made out of snow, some with human body parts embedded...either way, its ludicrous. It is somewhat watchable. A slow burner with extremely inconsistent pacing, underdeveloped characters and a ridiculously anti-climatic ending...yet I can't say I was bored. The performances just about save this from being bad. Fassbender, Ferguson, Simmons and even Kilmer were good. But yikes does he look old! He's aged 20 years in the space of five! Fassbender brings some humanity, even if his character was cold as ice. The plot becomes more preposterous as it progresses but for the most part I was entertained. Not thrilling in the slightest, yet it reminded me of British TV serial dramas. I admired that approach. The screenplay was horrendously clunky, no charisma or wit at all. It's completely direct, which unfortunately does not provide any emotional connection with our protagonists. The 'twist' wasn't outrageous and I did guess the culprit halfway through but atleast it makes sense...I think? The frozen fjords of tundra Norway looked stunning. Although I've seen enough snow for one day, no more thanks. The majority of the editing was amateurish. Frequent cuts, spoken dialogue with no mouths moving...urghhh. I like thrillers, you all know I do. This should've been great, it wasn't. It left me feeling, dare I say, cold? Not the worst murder mystery I've seen, there are good things to take away from it. But...meh.1 member likes this review.
