Michael Fassbender’s The Snowman Was a Failure with Critics and Audiences

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Michael Fassbender's The Snowman Was a Failure with Critics and Audiences

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  • The Snowman Is Completely Incoherent
  • The Snowman Is a Complete Disaster

As a seasoned film critic with over two decades of experience under my belt, I’ve seen more than my fair share of cinematic disasters – from the laughably bad to the downright bizarre. But The Snowman, oh dear The Snowman, it takes the cake!

According to all indications, The Snowman from 2017 should have been a surefire success. With the right ingredients in place, it appeared destined for greatness. Adapted from Jo Nesbø’s critically acclaimed crime novel, it brought together the talented team behind Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, including director Tomas Alfredson and writer Peter Straughan. Moreover, the cast was impressive, featuring stars like Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, and J.K. Simmons. With so much talent on board, it seemed like the perfect storm for a fantastic crime thriller.

It didn’t turn out as planned. In fact, The Snowman became one of Hollywood’s most peculiar flops from recent years, receiving largely negative reviews. With a 7% rating from critics and 19% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes, it was a significant departure from the success Alfredson and Straughan had achieved with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. What’s surprising is how disjointed The Snowman turned out to be, especially given their previous ability to simplify complex plots for the big screen. Red flags should have been raised when the film’s poster, featuring a hastily drawn snowman and the tagline “Mister Police, you could’ve saved her, I gave you all the clues,” was unveiled. So, given the initial promise, what caused The Snowman to fail?

The Snowman Got Lost in Translation

Michael Fassbender's The Snowman Was a Failure with Critics and AudiencesMichael Fassbender's The Snowman Was a Failure with Critics and AudiencesMichael Fassbender's The Snowman Was a Failure with Critics and Audiences

The movie titled “The Snowman,” based on Jo Nesbø’s 2007 novel, focuses on detective Harry Hole (yes, that’s his real name), who is investigating a cunning serial killer. This murderer, who abducts and dismembers women rumored to have been unfaithful to their partners, leaves a distinctive clue at each crime scene – a snowman sculpture. To assist in catching the killer, Hole recruits Katrine Bratt (played by Rebecca Ferguson) from the police station.

The main issue with this movie is that, by adapting a work from a Norwegian author and incorporating cultural elements into the storyline, there appears to be a significant misunderstanding or misrepresentation of those aspects during the translation process. For instance, the character’s name, “Harry Hole,” which sounds amusing in English due to its double meaning, is actually pronounced differently in Norway as “Hah-ry Hoo-lah.” Instead of using the original pronunciation or localizing the name, the production team opted for “Harry Hole,” a decision that seems somewhat unusual.

However, this error underscores a significant problem that misinterprets the novel’s overall mood. Jo Nesbø crafted The Snowman as a conventional murder mystery, but he infused it with a wickedly humorous undertone. The notion of a serial killer creating snowmen as markers might seem absurd, but it was effective in the book because Nesbø exhibited self-awareness in his writing. Unfortunately, in the movie, Alfredson and Straughan approached the storyline without any sense of humor, making scenes that were meant to be chilling instead elicit laughter.

The truth about the murderer’s background is made clear, and it’s in Jo Nesbø’s novel that we learn Matthias, as a child, spied on his mother having an affair by perching atop a snowman to peek into her bedroom. This traumatic event led Matthias to snap and murder his mother, and throughout his life he targeted women who were unfaithful to their husbands, leaving snowmen at the crime scenes as a symbol of cold-heartedness. However, in the movie adaptation, Matthias’s father is portrayed as abusive, which leads one to wonder why Matthias would then focus on punishing unfaithful wives and why he continues to leave snowmen at the scene of his crimes. This shift seems puzzling because it alters Matthias’s motivation for his actions.

The Snowman Is Completely Incoherent

Michael Fassbender's The Snowman Was a Failure with Critics and AudiencesMichael Fassbender's The Snowman Was a Failure with Critics and Audiences

fundamentally, the main issue with The Snowman is its incomprehensibility, moving from one scene to another and even within scenes. Scenes are pieced together seemingly at random, with shots that have little or no connection being joined by abrupt cuts, particularly during quiet moments where fewer cuts would have been more effective. This results in a bewildering experience for the viewer.

But these issues are nothing compared to the structural editing problems. Characters are introduced and are made to seem like they’ll be important later on, but they abruptly disappear from the film entirely. Subplots are introduced and quickly dropped, and important plot points are given almost no foreshadowing outside a couple of throwaway lines of dialogue that viewers would easily miss. Characters seem to abruptly switch motivations in between scenes. It’s so incoherently assembled, almost rivaling Suicide Squad on levels of utter sloppiness, that one could easily assume part of the movie wasn’t even filmed. Hilariously, all accounts say that’s actually exactly what happened.

Based on director Tomas Alfredson’s statement, the movie received unexpected approval at the last minute, leading to a hurried pre-production phase and a tight filming schedule of just two and a half months. Consequently, Alfredson explained that approximately 10-15% of the shooting script was not filmed: “Our filming time in Norway was insufficient, leaving much of the story untold. When we began editing, we realized that many parts were missing. It’s similar to assembling a big jigsaw puzzle and finding that several pieces are absent, resulting in an incomplete picture.

In haste, the production process resulted in a more heartbreaking incident for the cast. Val Kilmer, portraying the officer who had previously investigated the snowman murderer, was recently treated for throat cancer. This left him with an oversized tongue that affected his speech significantly. To deal with this challenge, the creative team made a tough call to minimize Kilmer’s on-screen speaking and later dubbed all his lines. On screen, these dubbed lines are almost painfully evident, leaving viewers wondering why they didn’t recruit another actor to give Kilmer time for recovery instead.

The Snowman Is a Complete Disaster

Michael Fassbender's The Snowman Was a Failure with Critics and AudiencesMichael Fassbender's The Snowman Was a Failure with Critics and AudiencesMichael Fassbender's The Snowman Was a Failure with Critics and Audiences

However you want to slice it, there’s little doubt that The Snowman would have proven a complete disaster no matter what. Despite Tomas Alfredson’s demonstrable talent as a director, it’s clear he couldn’t crack Jo Nesbø’s darkly comic tone the way he so effectively captured the spirit of John le Carré’s writing. But even if he had pulled it off, the impossible shooting circumstances would’ve sunk the project regardless, and the result is the worst of both worlds. The Snowman is a total shambles of a mystery thriller, but it is admittedly an enjoyable watch if you’re looking for some unintentional hilarity. The Snowman is streaming on Netflix.

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2024-09-23 00:01