A Truthful Review : The Snowman
Disclaimer: I'm not even sure I understand this movie, but I'll try.
The movie opens with an isolated house in Norway, where an official comes every week or so to give the boy an exam filled with questions about Norway's history, whenever the boy answered incorrectly, he would take out his frustration with the mother. Then, the man got into bed with the mother. She said something about telling the man's wife and children about her child with him. The man abruptly gets back into his car and leaves. The woman follows in the car with her son in the passenger seat. Except, she drives onto frozen lake and stops. Long story short, the boy survives and watches as his mother and her car plunges into the icy water below.
So the movie follows the main protagonist, Norwegian homicide detective Harry Hole (leave the jokes to the end). He smokes and drinks regularly, he passes out wherever he wants, but if there's one thing that he's good at, it's his job. They even study the cases that he's solved in the Scandinavian city, so he's well known. At the moment, he's looking at missing persons cases that coincidentally all involve women have been pregnant or have children that have an unknown paternity. We see that there all somehow linked and that it's actually the same murderer over the years.
There're a few redeeming qualities that Harry has, one of which is the fact that he tries so hard to be a good father figure to his ex-girlfriend's son, Oleg, although falls flat due to the fact that he's unreliable and never around. Then there's the detective that is just like Harry, Gert Rafto. Like Harry, he finds comfort in his alcoholic drinks and supposedly committed suicide in his remote hut, although Harry suspects that there's more to his death than just that. Somehow, Harry's new recruit, Katrine is connected to Gert Rafto because he's her dad (crazy right?).
Then, Arve Støp is this big businessman and he's trying to secure Oslo as the host for the a major sporting event, which he does succeed with, turns out he's connected with this case as well, seeing as he had an affair with another man's wife, who in turn ended up becoming pregnant and went missing. I swear this movie is a big confusing mess that makes it so hard for the audience to follow. Ugh.
Guess who the killer is? Mathias! Harry's ex-girlfriend's boyfriend! Now that I say that, it just demonstrates the point I'm trying to prove. A big brawl occurs and Harry loses his finger and he rushes out of the cabin to find Mathias. Harry gets a bullet and Mathias learns that it wasn't his mother that didn't want him, but his father. So, this whole time he was exacting revenge on these women for the wrong reasons. He met a bitter end when he falls into the icy water below, never to be seen again.
I hate how the movie stuck to the stereotype of the murderer killing women that he doesn't approve of because I see this in so many movies, the movie tried to play it safe, but it didn't work. Also, how Mathias didn't realize that his mother was probably suicidal after being subjecting to abuse by his father right in front of him or that she wanted a better life for Mathias, but thought she didn't want to hold him back from his potential. The movie never really told us what happened after the mother's death, so we never get to see the full picture and try to fill in the gaps. I disliked how Katrine died out of nowhere because the movie didn't see her as relevant to the plot so it decided to kill her off to tie up the loose end even though, the murderer was only really murdering promiscuous women, so to break tradition is a bit much especially when you've gotten so far into the movie. I guess like father like daughter?
In conclusion, the movie was a disaster, it didn't clear up any questions that we may have had and then they thought that by throwing in a talented cast that it meant the movie would be amazing, but it just didn't work out in the end.
Rating : 4/10
The movie opens with an isolated house in Norway, where an official comes every week or so to give the boy an exam filled with questions about Norway's history, whenever the boy answered incorrectly, he would take out his frustration with the mother. Then, the man got into bed with the mother. She said something about telling the man's wife and children about her child with him. The man abruptly gets back into his car and leaves. The woman follows in the car with her son in the passenger seat. Except, she drives onto frozen lake and stops. Long story short, the boy survives and watches as his mother and her car plunges into the icy water below.
So the movie follows the main protagonist, Norwegian homicide detective Harry Hole (leave the jokes to the end). He smokes and drinks regularly, he passes out wherever he wants, but if there's one thing that he's good at, it's his job. They even study the cases that he's solved in the Scandinavian city, so he's well known. At the moment, he's looking at missing persons cases that coincidentally all involve women have been pregnant or have children that have an unknown paternity. We see that there all somehow linked and that it's actually the same murderer over the years.
One of the reports that they get is about a woman from her husband, they go to the address looking for any signs of her and actually find her in the house. In the house, the music that's playing is the same music playing when Harry comes home to find the technician that was working on the mold in his apartment, the strange thing? it's the same music and not the same technician, telling me that is an indicator when the murderer is near.
Then, Arve Støp is this big businessman and he's trying to secure Oslo as the host for the a major sporting event, which he does succeed with, turns out he's connected with this case as well, seeing as he had an affair with another man's wife, who in turn ended up becoming pregnant and went missing. I swear this movie is a big confusing mess that makes it so hard for the audience to follow. Ugh.
Guess who the killer is? Mathias! Harry's ex-girlfriend's boyfriend! Now that I say that, it just demonstrates the point I'm trying to prove. A big brawl occurs and Harry loses his finger and he rushes out of the cabin to find Mathias. Harry gets a bullet and Mathias learns that it wasn't his mother that didn't want him, but his father. So, this whole time he was exacting revenge on these women for the wrong reasons. He met a bitter end when he falls into the icy water below, never to be seen again.
I hate how the movie stuck to the stereotype of the murderer killing women that he doesn't approve of because I see this in so many movies, the movie tried to play it safe, but it didn't work. Also, how Mathias didn't realize that his mother was probably suicidal after being subjecting to abuse by his father right in front of him or that she wanted a better life for Mathias, but thought she didn't want to hold him back from his potential. The movie never really told us what happened after the mother's death, so we never get to see the full picture and try to fill in the gaps. I disliked how Katrine died out of nowhere because the movie didn't see her as relevant to the plot so it decided to kill her off to tie up the loose end even though, the murderer was only really murdering promiscuous women, so to break tradition is a bit much especially when you've gotten so far into the movie. I guess like father like daughter?
In conclusion, the movie was a disaster, it didn't clear up any questions that we may have had and then they thought that by throwing in a talented cast that it meant the movie would be amazing, but it just didn't work out in the end.
Rating : 4/10
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