Synopsis
Smilla Jaspersen, half Danish, half Greenlander, attempts to understand the death of a small boy who falls from the roof of her apartment building. Suspecting wrongdoing, Smilla uncovers a trail of clues leading towards a secretive corporation that has made several mysterious expeditions to Greenland. Scenes from the film were shot in Copenhagen and western Greenland. The film was entered into the 47th Berlin International Film Festival, where director Bille August was nominated for the Golden Bear.
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Cast
- Julia OrmondSmilla Jasperson
- Gabriel ByrneThe Mechanic
- Richard HarrisDr. Andreas Tork
- Jim BroadbentDr. Lagermann
- Tom WilkinsonProf. Loyen
- Robert LoggiaMoritz Jasperson
- Vanessa RedgraveElsa Lübing
- Bob PeckRavn
- David HaymanTelling
- Peter CapaldiBirgo Lander
Recommendations
- 75
Chicago Sun-Times
Here is a movie so absorbing, so atmospheric, so suspenseful and so dumb, that it proves my point: The subject matter doesn't matter in a movie nearly as much as mood, tone and style. - 75
ReelViews
It is involving and entertaining, and features an intriguing, independent heroine. - 70
The New York Times
This story has now been gracefully adapted by Bille August into a sleek, good-looking film that captures the book's peculiar fascination. - 63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Regresses into a lame action-thriller. - 50
Chicago Reader
By the end Smilla has become a formulaic action hero--equally at home in an evening dress and blue jeans--not a marginalized victim seeking to uncover the source of her wound, and the film collapses around her like glaciers of melting ice. - 50
San Francisco Chronicle
Vanessa Redgrave makes a regal if too-brief appearance. - 50
San Francisco Examiner
This is the kind of story that might have been interesting had it not been populated with dreary characters played by actors who were clearly coached to be as dull as possible. - 40
Salon
It doesn't help that Julia Ormond -- perhaps the most un-Smilla-like actress walking the planet -- is cast in the starring role. She gives a competent performance, but she looks like Nancy Drew's pert-nosed cousin who somehow got trapped while sleuthing inside a snow globe, not the prickly, androgynous warrior Smilla is meant to be.
