Tomas Alfredson’s The Snowman is basically one long episode of Criminal Minds and while the 45 minute TV show is gripping and exhilarating, The Snowman runs the risk of dragging on for too long and losing it’s audience.
Still, the movie is strangely fascinating, if not for the plot than for the multiple shots of snow, which seems to take up half the running time.
Set in Oslo Norway, detective Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) finds himself investigating the disappearance of a woman whose pink scarf is discovered wrapped around the world’s creepiest looking snowman.
Together with his partner Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson) the two discover the killer only kills when it is snowing and targets women who have children, but as they close in on the suspect he seems to be one step ahead of them, taunting and teasing through a series of letters and leaving his signature trademark, the snowman, after every kill.
Meanwhile, as he is working on the case, Harry has to come to terms with his alcoholism and his relationship with Rakel (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her son Oleg (Michael Yates).
The Snowman could have been a brilliant movie but its slow moving pace hinders it from keeping you on the edge of your seat.
Other than that, the performances from the cast are amazing, the score eerie and poignant and big reveal at the end, though predictable is satisfying and the deaths are grisly and vomit inducing, so not for anyone with a weak stomach.
Also starring JK Simmons, Toby Jones, Val Kilmer and James D’Arcy.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Rated: M
Distributor: Universal Pictures
In cinemas now
