The Snowman Review

The setting for the film, The Snowman, is stunning. Harsh Scandinavian countryside is the perfect setting to bring out the hard dimensions of a murder mystery. The sweeping, massive scope of the landscapes lends a real sense of remote-ness and danger to the locales and characters. This is complimented by the low light and hardscrabble settings in which the film takes place. All of this allows for complex and vital characters to stand up and stand out in crushing circumstances.

The film sets a perfect stage for capturing the stoic heroes standing tall against fate and helpless victims as grains of sand against endless earth. It is all the more disappointing when the characters who step forward onto this stage are one-dimensional and paper-thin. Fassbender's Harry Hole, the ace detective haunted by the demons of his past, is not compelling in the least nor is there any real evidence that he is actually a skilled detective. The film takes great pains to show the viewer how tortured he is, but without the legitimacy provided by actual detective work Hole just seems irresponsible. Ferguson's Katrine Brat, the upstart detective chasing the ghosts of her past, does no detecting other than to inexplicably botch a brief interview midway through the film. She demonstrates none of the fire you would expect from a person on a crusade to clear the name of someone they love. J.K. Simmon's turn as the lecherous and shady Arve Stop is puzzling. From his first arrival on screen Arve is pure caricature. The character barely factors into the story and seems more out of place as you realize how little anything that involves him actually effects the story. Gainsbourg's Rakel was the only character that demonstrates any personality, but the story offers her little time to grow in the audience's mind. The film seems to want to wave Rakel around as a catalyst to unpack Harry's baggage and explore more human aspects of Harry's personality, but Fassbender's performance is so wooden that the moments pass largely without impact. What's worse is that all of the questions that arise from Rakel's interactions with Hole are largely abandoned as the film accelerates with head-spinning speed to it's abrupt conclusion.

Unfortunately, almost nothing else works. Pay too much attention to the mystery and you find yourself asking how the daughter of a controversial, alcoholic police officer whose career ended in a public suicide is breezing through the police department with no-one the wiser about her background and associated conflicts of interest. Hole continues to miss days of work or sleep rough as a result of his drunken antics throughout the movie. He is insulated from his actions by allies within the police department, but the viewer is given no context as to why this is happening. Hole does precious little detecting in the film, and while it may be based off of the seventh installment of a book series none of this context is available to the average viewer. The movie is largely devoid of clues for the audience to follow, so watching the film to solve the mystery yourself is impossible. The film does occasionally drum up suspense with effective combinations of score and camerawork, but this is minimal payout for the audience's investment.

Overall, the film never manages to capture any interest. None of the characters are accessible. All of the motives of all of the characters seem one-dimensional and flimsy. Characters are assigned motivations and parts to play through dialog and clumsy exposition, but none step forward to inhabit the blueprint they were given. Where the film fails to drum up enough personality to be a character piece, the mystery and thriller aspects are no better. There's no real reason to see this one.