Tomas Alfredsonās Scandinavian crime thriller The Snowman, based on a novel by Jo NesbĆø, starts off good ānā creepy, portraying the exact conditions that mark the early lives of many a serial killer. Alas, it slowly unravels into a collection of loose ends, despite the best efforts of Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Ferguson as a dysfunctional team investigating murders in pristine Norwegian towns.
Even before The Snowman's release, Alfredson admitted the film's production was rushed and incomplete, and it shows: Entire plot lines are abandoned. Charlotte Gainsbourg's character does nothing but act confused and wear short skirts without tights in Norway. (NORWAY!) Another character is dispatched with so quickly and unceremoniously that it wasnāt even clear if they were, in fact, dead; anotherās death is so drawn out it becomes desensitizing. Meanwhile, Fassbenderās furrowed brow does a lot of the movieās heavy lifting. Itās capable of a lot, but not carrying an entire movie.
I liked The Snowman just fineāitās scary, and all the casual detective knitwear looked cozyābut I watch a lot of murder mysteries and have a high tolerance for even the categoryās most mediocre entries. This is certainly one of them. But the bones of a more complicated, interesting movie are visible: Thereās something fantastically creepy about a murderous weirdo disrupting Alfredsonās cleanly framed, beautifully filmed atmosphere, and some momentsāas when we see the first victim attackedāare imbued with a real sense of dread. If you love crime movies so much that youāll excuse the bad ones, thereās enough here to recommend The Snowman. If you donāt, get back to Mindhunter.