The Snowman

When a genre becomes 'in vogue' it’s inevitable that the market will be saturated with copycats. The ‘Scandi-noir’ is now established, both on television and film, as is the recent upswing in serial killer thrillers based on bestselling novels.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl and The Girl On The Train’s box office success and critical praise are to blame for The Snowman; the most recent example, based on Jo Nesbo’s novel which is ten years old now.

Tomas Alfredson on directing duties (he was responsible for the excellent Let The Right One In) and Martin Scorsese exec’ producing sounds like a tasty recipe but this, unfortunately, leaves a bit of a foul taste in the mouth.

Michael Fassbender steps into the shoes of Harry Hole, a grizzled, veteran detective with the obligatory love life issues and drink problem. He’s the best at what he does despite never turning up for work. Picking up a missing person case from a rookie with a hidden past he finds himself on the hunt for a returning serial killer who uses the titular snowman as his calling card.

This is thrown in with some random plot threads designed to throw us off the scent, none of which make a vast degree of sense, and none of which end satisfactorily. It just feels a little half-arsed and rushed, the script could have done with a double check and something seems to have been missed in the edit.

It touches the right buttons in part; the violence is stark and explicit, the setting fits and Fassbender, despite sleepwalking through the movie, is still eminently watchable, as is the excellent Rebecca Ferguson in the main supporting role, but JK Simmons is completely wasted in an odd part, as is Val Kilmer.

The plot reveals do come but just seem to fit clichés rather than feeling relevant to what you’ve seen, it doesn’t surprise in the same way as the aforementioned films and the threat level isn’t quite there in the same way either.

There’s a decent film scrabbling to get out and I’m sure there are other Nesbo novels with more suitable material for adaptation. Here’s hoping Fassbender gets another go at bringing this character to the screen but The Snowman goes down as a bit of a melt.

2 stars **