Synopsis
Detective Harry Hole investigates the disappearance of a woman whose pink scarf is found wrapped around an ominous looking snowman.
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Cast
- Michael FassbenderHarry Hole
- Rebecca FergusonKatrine Bratt
- Charlotte GainsbourgRakel
- Jonas KarlssonMathias
- Michael YatesOleg
- Ronan VibertGunnar Hagen
- J.K. SimmonsArve Støp
- Val KilmerRafto
- David DencikVetlesen
- Toby JonesDC Svenson
Recommendations
- 60
The Guardian
It’s a serviceable, watchable thriller, with very gruesome images. - 42
IndieWire
Alfredson’s direction proves yawnsomely methodical, ticking off surviving plot points as though filling in some I-Spy Book of Scandinavian Crime Cliches. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
For all its high-caliber talent mix, The Snowman is a largely pedestrian affair, turgid and humorless in tone. The cast share zero screen chemistry, much of the dialogue feels like a clunky first draft and the wearily familiar plot is clogged with clumsy loose ends. - 40
Variety
There’s a lot happening on the surface of Alfredson’s perplexing winter wonder-why, but considerably less going on inside. - 40
Screen Daily
Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series is comprised of page-turning, airport-blockbuster Scandi crime potboilers; Alfredson scorches the seventh, The Snowman, with such art-house intensity that it eventually melts into an exhausted puddle. - 40
Empire
A case of a missed opportunity. It references all the right films, but The Snowman comes off as a pale imitation. - 40
Total Film
All the signs pointed to a hit chiller: great cast, a director with fantastic form and a celebrated Jo Nesbø novel to draw from. So it’s a huge shame, then, that The Snowman is a bit grey and slushy when it should have been cool and crisp. - 40
Time Out London
In short, the raw materials are there for a fun – if throwback – genre piece of the kind that kept ’90s cinema stocked with stiffs. Alas, the tension dissipates in a tangle of muddled subplots, sluggish pacing and some strange decisions from director Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). The result isn’t a Bone Collector, never mind a Se7en.
