The Snowman is the new heart-pounding thriller directed by Tomas Alfredson (famous for directing 2011's Tinker Tailor Solider Spy). Th wintry and murderous film is an adaptation of Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø's 2007 bestseller of the same name.
Bringing a novel to life on the big screen is often a challenge, and most times such efforts end up underwhelming. This year alone, adaptations including Fifty Shades Darker, The Shack and The Dark Tower have faced the wrath of both the die-hard book fans and critics, each one of them ending up with a Rotten Tomatoes score of less than 20%. And that's not mentioning runaway disasters like Live by Night and A Dog's Purpose. Fortunately for Tomas Alfredson, he had a good team behind him for this one, including Oscar-nominee screenplay writers Hossein Amini and Peter Straughan, Oscar-nominee actor Michael Fassbender and Oscar-winning actor J. K. Simmons.
The death of a young woman during the first snowfall of winter instantly leads Detective Harry Hole (Fassbender) to one of the most bizarre encounters of his career. It's clear to him that the death isn't just a homicide - there's a strange pattern to it. He partners up with fresh new recruit, Katrine (Rebecca Ferguson) to tackle the mysterious recurring cases. Their efforts to seek justice for the victims brings them in the trail of a psychopath who continuously taunts Det. Hole in a bid to irk him and quite frankly, make him feel powerless. Fassbender is convincing in his role as the "disturbed" detective.
Other than its suspenseful script and great acting, a couple more things make The Snowman a great watch; the linear story which is easy to follow and the spectacular locations which provide a fitting cold and haunting backdrop to the story - almost acting as an extra character. The makeup and graphics department also do an awesome job. The corpses, especially, are so gorily realistic, they made me squirmy.
My overall take on the movie is that it's definitely one of the "must-watch" films of 2017. The unexpected twists, coupled with the mystery is very exciting.
This review is courtesy of Planet Media Cinemas - Westgate. See their updated movies lineup here.

About The Author

Author
Alix Grubel

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