THE SNOWMAN – Rated R – 1 hr 59 mins.

Starring Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg

We have a new crime thriller detective brought to us by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo.  Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) is one of those typical detectives we have all seen before who is not only an amazing detective work, but also an alcoholic, who passes out from time to time.

The Snowman is the first in Nesbo’s series, following a serial killer through the snow.  The killer is enforcing all of his own codes and leaving clues along the way.  The problem is that the film is a little long and filled with very bad exchanges between the main characters.

Harry has an ex Rakel (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who has a child Oleg (Michael Yates).  While Oleg is not Hole’s son, he does treat him like his son.  Hole also has a new partner Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson).  She is tracking the serial killer who is targeting the mothers who have had kids, but don’t know who the father might be.  They know he has killed before and was tracked by Rafto (Val Kilmer).

Again, I can’t tell you how slow moving this flick is, plus you will figure out who the killer is in the middle of the flick, or earlier which leaves a lot of down time.  Kilmer struggles in the flick; you can tell he is battling some kind of oral cancer.  He is very frail and really doesn’t speak much, and when he does it is kind of painful to watch.

There is a sub-story throughout the flick that involves J.K. Simmons.  This whole part of the story is not needed, it is in the story to throw us off the path of the killer, but it really does not do anything for the story.  I think even director Tomas Alfredson knows it is not going to do well; he has been on record stating the production was rushed.  I hardly think anything in The Snowman was rushed at two hours it could have been rushed a little more.

I grade The Snowman a D, if you like thrillers wait until this hits dvd next month.

Brad Watts