509: The Snowman

[00:00:01] Let's get to a random film this time, which is The Snowman from 2017, directed by Thomas Alfredson, who also did Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Let the Right One In.

[00:00:31] The Snopsis is,

[00:00:33] Detective Harry Hole investigates the disappearance of a woman whose scarf is found wrapped around an ominous-looking snowman.

[00:00:45] Well, this one I was looking forward to. It is right in my alley, right in my wheelhouse.

[00:00:52] I'm reading the book right now as well.

[00:00:57] It's what I like to call the airport bookstore novel.

[00:01:01] It's one of those crime thrillers that you can just pick up while you're getting onto a plane and read.

[00:01:06] It's not that deep or complex. It's your girl on the train, girl with the dragon tattoo, Da Vinci Code, that sort of thing.

[00:01:19] I didn't know going in the first time the issues that it had. I know that it had been fairly trashed critically.

[00:01:29] But learning later on about the production problems, for one, the pre-production was rushed.

[00:01:36] And so they actually did not have the money. They ran out of money to film the last 10 to 15% of the film.

[00:01:45] Not in terms of the ending, but just various chunks throughout the story.

[00:01:51] So, therefore, there are parts that feel choppy. They had to do voiceover for some things that otherwise would not make sense.

[00:02:02] Val Kilmer, who's not in it a lot, he had throat cancer at the time.

[00:02:08] And a lot of his dialogue was very unintelligible from what I read.

[00:02:13] And so they had to dub all of his lines, basically.

[00:02:19] Which, in terms of all that, you can't do anything about what Val Kilmer was dealing with.

[00:02:24] And then I don't blame the director or anything like that.

[00:02:28] I blame the studio for saying, hey, you need to do this movie right now.

[00:02:31] We have the money. Let's do it.

[00:02:32] And not saying, hey, let's wait and plan this all out.

[00:02:35] And they paid for it, I guess.

[00:02:40] This is probably my third time watching it.

[00:02:44] And I understand why it got trashed.

[00:02:47] I know that a lot of people just love to hate it and pick it apart to death.

[00:02:54] However, I really don't think it's that bad.

[00:02:58] And I guess it's saying something that I've seen it multiple times.

[00:03:03] I like the character of Harry Hole.

[00:03:05] He's more interesting in the novels.

[00:03:07] But I think even in this, where he's a very worn down, beaten down detective who is just desperate in the weirdest way for a crime to investigate.

[00:03:17] And he gets this very strange case of this killer who leaves snowmen at the various scenes of his crimes and or incorporates a snowman into the death of that victim.

[00:03:38] Some good points aside from that.

[00:03:41] I think it's shot very well.

[00:03:43] Thomas Alfredson has a very good eye.

[00:03:47] The editing, it is what it is.

[00:03:49] You know, based on what I said, yeah, it's choppy sometimes.

[00:03:52] But at least in terms of the scenes that you're watching, I think it was put together as best as it could be.

[00:04:01] Rebecca Ferguson is fantastic.

[00:04:03] She doesn't have a lot to do, but she's just a great actor.

[00:04:09] The score is by Marco Beltrami, who this is one of his smaller films, but I actually interviewed him on the Music Buds podcast.

[00:04:19] And so if you want to check out that interview, you can wherever you normally listen.

[00:04:26] Even though I'm not done with the book yet, and the book is able to, I guess, hide certain flaws or logic issues a little bit better, whereas this one doesn't.

[00:04:36] I think the main flaw with this being grounded in a reality is it doesn't totally make sense how this killer is having the time to make these snowmen or leave them in certain spots of a crime scene and not being seen leaving or not still being there by the time the cops show up.

[00:05:02] It's a little goofy in that way.

[00:05:04] It's fine.

[00:05:05] You know, it's a trashy crime thriller.

[00:05:08] There are much worse storytelling issues out there.

[00:05:11] But just to point that out, Michael Fassbender's character, he deals with somewhat the divorce in his family and his son, who is constantly hoping he gets to spend time with him.

[00:05:26] But then Harry Hole is always busy with work.

[00:05:30] And, you know, I don't think there's anything really new there or incredibly deep.

[00:05:35] But I think it was at least interesting.

[00:05:37] And I like Charlotte Gainsbourg as the wife.

[00:05:40] I think there's a lot of some of the kill sequences with the snowman killer.

[00:05:48] The one with the decapitation device, that's pretty effective.

[00:05:54] And then the staged suicide with him putting the top of the snowman head on the victim's mangled head, for lack of a better term.

[00:06:10] I just wish that there was not to say I wish there's more violence, but I feel like there's some very visceral moments in this that work and are very memorable.

[00:06:20] But it's few and far between.

[00:06:25] One section that maybe I'm just reaching here or projecting, but I think where it's the biggest problem is all of the political stuff going on in the city with J.K. Simmons.

[00:06:40] I feel like all of that stuff felt so honestly unnecessary.

[00:06:46] Because I felt like any time it jumped back to that, I was just like, why are we spending time here?

[00:06:53] And I know that there are little threads connecting to everything else, but not nearly enough to really warrant that subplot.

[00:07:04] The sequence, final sequence on the ice with the killer, that location is really great.

[00:07:13] There's not a lot of big surprises or shocks with how things turn out, but I was at least engaged.

[00:07:21] And reminded me a little bit of Insomnia, the Christopher Nolan film.

[00:07:30] So I would say give it a look.

[00:07:32] It's at least different in some ways.

[00:07:36] Left a bit of a mark.

[00:07:39] And I guess it's a good one for the fall winter season as well.

[00:07:44] That one is a light three out of five.