By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jonas Karlsson, Michael Yates, Val Kilmer, Tobby Jones, James D´Arcy, Chloë Sevigny and J.K. Simmons.
Rating: Poor.
Tomas Alfredson, director of 2011´s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” brings another thriller with “The Snowman” and I have to say that his movie is a total mess.
Based on the novel by Jo Nesbø the movie takes place in Oslo, Norway and tells the story of Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) an alcoholic divorced detective that one day receives a mysterious note with clues.
Those clues will relate to the disappearance of a girl, whose scarf is wrapped around a creepy snowman.
The serial killer with the clues begins to play a game of cat and mouse with Hole and he will team up with detective Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson) to solve this case.
Now both Hole and Bratt will try to stop the killer before it´s too late and continues his killing spree and tries to lead Hole into a downward spiral that can lead him to insanity.
The thing that really surprised me on how bad “The Snowman” is was the directing by Tomas Alfredson. I´m saying surprised because he did an outstanding job with “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” making it one of the best of 2011, leading to an Academy Award Nomination for Gary Oldman.
Here the major problem is the fact that he directed a very poor screenplay written by Peter Straughan, Hossein and Søren Sveistrup which lead to a complete mess and for moments the movie was confusing.
From the minute the first clue of the film was reveled I stopped caring about the film and I felt that it was a complete waste of time.
The plot doesn´t make any sense and involves also things are more in the political side that I don´t feel that has anything to do with the movie whatsoever.
Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Ferguson did the best they could with their performances. Both of them are really good actors and will try to deliver. The problem is that this type of caliber actors there are going to be limited when there is a bad screenplay and this is the example of it.
J.K. Simmons character who plays someone who has a lot of influence in the Norwegian community I didn´t buy his performance and it´s a shame since he´s an actor that I really respect and admire but he was completely wasted and useless in this role.
The movie was too long and Alfredson´s directing was all over the place. He focused more in the visuals of the film, which are the only thing to acknowledge in this film.
This by far is one of the worst movies I have seen in the thriller genre. All movies regardless of the genre have to be engaging but this one has it needs to be even more since the tension is a factor here.
I didn´t see any moments of tension or fear in this film and it became so predictable. From the moment the second act of this film started it was obvious who the really serial killer is and they illustrated in one of the most stupid was ever.
It´s a shame for Tomas Alfredson who knows how to direct a film of this caliber didn´t deliver and hopefully this can be a learning experience.
The Snowman” is one of the worst movies of this year and I cannot recommend it.