The Snowman (2017)

Detective Harry Hole investigates the disappearance of a woman whose scarf is found wrapped around an ominous-looking snowman.

Director:

Tomas Alfredson

Writers:

Peter Straughan (screenplay by), Hossein Amini (screenplay by)

Stars:

Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Fassbender	...	Harry Hole
Rebecca Ferguson	...	Katrine Bratt
Charlotte Gainsbourg	...	Rakel
Jonas Karlsson	...	Mathias
Michael Yates	...	Oleg
Ronan Vibert	...	Gunnar Hagen
J.K. Simmons	...	Arve Stop
Val Kilmer	...	Rafto
David Dencik	...	Vetlesen
Toby Jones	...	DC Svensson
Genevieve O'Reilly	...	Birte Becker
James D'Arcy	...	Filip Becker
Jeté Laurence	...	Josephine Becker
Adrian Dunbar	...	Frederik Aasen
Chloë Sevigny	...	Sylvia Ottersen / Ane Pedersen

Storyline

When an elite crime squad's lead detective investigates the disappearance of a victim on the first snow of winter, he fears an elusive serial killer may be active again. With the help of a brilliant recruit, the cop must connect decades-old cold cases to the brutal new one if he hopes to outwit this unthinkable evil before the next snowfall.

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Plot Keywords:

promiscuous wife | promiscuous woman | hiked skirt | topless female nudity | long haired woman | 

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Taglines:

Mister Police. You Could have Saved Her. I Gave You All The Clues.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for grisly images, violence, some language, sexuality and brief nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Instagram Official Blog

Country:

UK USA Sweden

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

20 October 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

El muñeco de nieve

Filming Locations:

Norway

Box Office

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,372,565, 22 October 2017, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$6,670,765, 16 November 2017

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures,Another Park Film,Perfect World Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Leading up to the release of the movie, Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang released a series of mock articles in collaboration with Universal, intended to show how the newspaper would normally cover a case like the one depicted in the movie. They included articles about the murder weapon, Harry Hole himself, and grisly details of the antagonist's murder spree.

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Goofs

Every time Val Kilmers character speaks you can easily tell his voice is dubbed over with someone else's (this is because Val Kilmer was being treated for throat cancer during filming and because of the surgery his throat was swelled so much he wasn't able to talk correctly)

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Quotes

Katrine Bratt: [from the trailer] I've read your case files in college
Harry Hole: They date back that far?

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Connections

Featured in Crime Connections: Episode #1.4 (2012)

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Soundtracks

An Dante
Written by Gunnar Svensson
Performed by Arne Domnérus
Courtesy of Phono Suecia Records and Naxos
By arrangement with Source/Q

User Reviews

Wow, this was quite the stinker!

I just don't know where to begin...

...well lets start with the story, a films core. The Snowman's plot and its execution was all over the place. It's not just that it was nonsensical and just laughably stupid by the end, but the movie was filled with scenes and complete subplots that were completely inconsequential and unnecessary. Some characters and their whole storyline could easily have been cut out and it wouldn't have had any effect on the plot. Excuse me, did I write characters? There were none in this film, only famous and recognizable faces who were hired because of their name. Talking about this stellar cast full of fantastic actors, they just as easily could have been replaced by complete unknowns and it wouldn't have changed a thing. I feel bad for them, since Fassbender is in my opinion one of the best working actors today, along with Charlotte Gainsbourg, J.K. Simmons and Toby Jones who unfortunately just did not have anything to work with from the get go.

Okay, lets talk about the execution of this mess. It starts out slow after a very odd opening and stays that way for more than half of the movie. Nothing important happens. Then we are introduced to some new "characters" and subplots, which also didn't add anything to the film. Then there's some effort to build Fassbender's "character", which had no payoff and was completely unconvincing anyway. Then by the time you get to the half-way point you're bored out of your mind and already know who done did the things that had been done, so there's no reveal or twist by the end. And that ending. It is just completely ridiculous and has a few unintentionally laugh out loud moments. So, there's that.

I have to say that I haven't read the source material, so I don't know if it's as bad as the film (probably not), but the film is just bad. Really bad. It's extremely stale and bafflingly stupid, which caught me off guard, since there was a time where Scorsese was set to direct. I wonder if he could have made it work.

The only good that's worth mentioning is that the setting is very pretty to look at, shot at times beautifully, which at least adds a certain atmosphere to the film and lastly there was some fun gore and unintentionally funny scenes.

So don't go out of your way the see this one, it's a stinker.