The Snowman
13/10/17 Filed in: Cinema
Once again we've seen a film on its first day of release. And the cinema was relatively well attended for an early afternoon screening. Having checked out the reviews on my return, if Rotten Tomatoes is anything to go by (which is always a moot point) then the critics think it is terrible. But at the time of writing there is a 96% 'want to see it' score from audiences. Let's hope they are not disappointed. I wasn't.
A remote mountain house, a woman and her son, and a policeman arrives to the obvious disquiet of the woman. He is the boy's father, although clearly not of the live-in variety. He quizzes the boy on facts about Norwegian history, and every time the boy fails to answer correctly, he hits the woman brutally. After this he takes her to the bedroom. What follows sets up all that is to follow.
We jump forward in time and the main action is now set in a very cold-looking Oslo, where we're introduced to Harry Hole, played by Michael Fassbender. He's an alcoholic police detective who is just about hanging on to his job, having been quite a celebrity in earlier times for his crime-solving performances. He tells his boss that he 'just needs a case', which he feels will kickstart his recovery. The boss seems far from convinced. In the office he meets a new recruit, Katrine Bratt, played by Rebecca Ferguson. He asks her for a lift home, as he no longer has a driving licence, and on the way they divert to a missing person call. He doesn't see it as anything other than a marital dispute but she clearly sees something else. This is because she has a secret, and her interest in the case is coloured by something in her past.
Unable to fathom exactly what is driving Katrine, Harry visits Bergen where she worked previously and realises that she is on a personal quest that involves a businessman, Arve Støp. Her father, Gert Rafto, was a police detective, and an investigation into Støp was cut short when Gert apparently committed suicide. Katrine is convinced that her father wouldn't have done this without at least explaining his actions. Harry gradually starts to put the pieces together and joins her in pursuing what she believes to be a case of serial killings, soon to be confirmed after a bizarre missing person call that at first appears to be a hoax. The killer's signature is a snowman, which appears either near the crime scene, or ghoulishly as part of the mutilated corpse. Yes, this film contains some graphic imagery. Harry had earlier received a letter with a simplistic snowman sketch as the signature. It seems that there is something personal between them, but what?Meanwhile we see the private side of Harry's life. A former girlfriend, Rakel, played by Charlotte Gainsborough, and her son, Oleg, although Harry isn't the father. Rakel is now living with a doctor, Mathias Lund-Helgesen, who is the antithesis of Harry; a smart top professional in his field of plastic surgery, and on the face of it a bit boring. But looks can be deceiving.
As the plot develops Katrine starts to take risks by following leads alone, and not confiding in Harry. By this time Harry has realised that the Snowman is playing with them, seemingly knowing their every move. The reason for this, when it is revealed, is a surprise but perhaps not entirely unexpected. There are clues along the way.
Of course there is a showdown in the end between Harry and the killer.
For us this was a decent suspense drama in the vein of the various Nordic TV series that have graced our screens in recent years. I'm beginning to think that the 'critics' are becoming far too critical in order to justify their existence, because quite honestly this film doesn't deserve the bad press it is receiving.