Based on a novel of the same name by Jo Nesbø, the film is about a detective named Harry Hole trying to find a killer who uses snowmen as his calling card
It doesn't help that there was 10-15% of the script they didn't film which apparently left plot holes that they tried to solve in the editing room: “Our shoot time in Norway was way too short, we didn’t get the whole story with us and when we started cutting we discovered that a lot was missing," said director Tomas Alfredson. But he also defends the geography of the film. “It’s not a documentary about the geography of Norway, I wanted to make a fictive thriller,” he says. “So even if not everything is geographically correct, I don’t give a shit.”
The film was originally supposed to be directed by Scorsese, but he eventually just took on a producing role.
It's currently at 10% on Rotten Tomatoes
‘The Snowman’ Director Knows Why Critics Hate His Movie: He Didn’t Shoot the Whole Script https://t.co/uHPq3IVrV7 via @indiewire
— Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) October 19, 2017
Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair
THE SNOWMAN is the new 1990s Joel Schumacher movie you never knew you wanted (you don't want it)
— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 19, 2017
Alison Willmore of BuzzFeed
THE SNOWMAN makes so many baffling choices that it ends up feeling kind of avant-garde
— Alison Horror Story (@alisonwillmore) October 19, 2017
Philadelphia Inquirer: The Snowman registers both as a bad thriller and a kind of anti-tourism ad that makes you never want to go to Oslo.
EW: A twisty tale of inexplicable red herrings, baffling plot detours, and Chloe Sevigny as not one but two identical chicken farmers
Rolling Stone: It's bad. A bit of a full-on Nesbøner, in fact.
Detroit News: Playground snowball fights have more suspense and intrigue than "The Snowman," the most puzzlingly bad movie of the year.
Vox: The Snowman does have the distinction of being so bad it's almost worth watching, just to recalibrate your movie-viewing meter.
Globe and Mail: Completely, atrociously, perhaps even impressively, stupid.
Uproxx: There's a frozen loogie at the heart of The Snowman
Seattle Times: The first half-hour in particular feels like there's no plot at all, just a highlights reel of Random Norwegian Crime Films In Which Everything Is Ominous and Everyone Looks Really Cold.
The Tracking Board: It adds up to what can only be described as a scorched-earth failure, a near-complete misfire that doesn't even work on the most fundamental levels as a film.
Indiewire: For all the considerable nous assembled either side of the camera, no one can rescue it from its own mediocrity: if this were the opening act of a TV miniseries, you'd be exploring other channels some time between the second and third ad breaks.
source:1/2
/3/4
what's your favorite harsh review?
