The Snowman
2017, Mystery and thriller/Crime, 1h 59m
196 Reviews 10,000+ RatingsWhat to know
critics consensus
A mystery that feels as mashed together and perishable as its title, The Snowman squanders its bestselling source material as well as a top-notch ensemble cast. Read critic reviews
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Cast & Crew
Harry Hole
Katrine Bratt
Rakel
Mathias
Arve Stop
Rafto
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Critic Reviews for The Snowman
All Critics (196) | Top Critics (57) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (183)
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There are many sequences that left me going, "Wait, what?"
August 28, 2018 | Full Review… -
This film may well be the last gasp of Scandi-noir for the international market...this phase of Nordic has gone from original to dutiful emulation to dreary self-parody.
March 8, 2018 | Full Review… -
What to make of a film that introduces Chlo Sevigny happily beheading chickens with an axe, has her beheaded herself by the killer, then immediately produces a twin sister to deliver a single item of exposition before never being seen again?
October 27, 2017 | Full Review… -
[The Snowman] is two hours of uninterrupted, snow-caked boredom.
October 26, 2017 | Full Review… -
... the movie itself is an inept misfire - the kind of entrancing train wreck that makes you long for a behind-the-scene tell-all to explain what, exactly, went so wrong.
October 26, 2017 | Full Review… -
How did a delicious Scandinavian noir novel go so spectacularly wrong on screen?
October 26, 2017 | Full Review…
Audience Reviews for The Snowman
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May 19, 2020Honestly, it should probably be shown in one of your early lessons in a film class. Slap on any given scene and ask the question "Now which decisions did you spot that should never have been made in this or any movie?" Honestly the only reason it even comes away with a whopping(!) one-and-a-half stars, is that minute to minute, The Snowman is so bizarre, that it actually reaches levels of laugh-out-loud funny.Gimly M Super Reviewer
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Jul 23, 2018Had some potential and had good acting but the plot was so slow and the twists got overloaded and confusion set in. Well shot and edited and Fassbender is a great actor. Liked it somewhat not as mucha s I had Hoped. 07-21-2018Christopher O Super Reviewer
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Mar 02, 2018Suspenseful and full of mystery, The Snowman is an atmospheric noir thriller. Based on an international bestselling novel, the film follows a police detective who investigates a serial killer who targets women. Starring Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Val Kilmer, and J. K. Simmons, the film has a pretty strong cast; though the performances are rather lackluster. And the script is kind of weak, doing a poor job at constructing the mystery and investigation. Still, there are some intense scenes as the killer stalks his prey and crime scenes are discovered. It may not come together very well, but The Snowman is an engaging film with a fair amount of intrigue.Dann M Super Reviewer
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Jan 24, 2018Michael Fassbender may be of the one of the most talented and reliable actors of his generation but the same can't always be said about some of his film choices. Assassin's Creed only added to another failed video-game adaptation and his work with Ridley Scott on Prometheus, Alien: Covenant and The Counselor also failed to impress (although, I was admittedly one of the few admirers of the latter film). My point being, though, is that he's now not quite as bankable as he once was. Over recent years, you're just as likely to catch a stinker as you are a work of quality and The Snowman doesn't do anything to remedy this issue. Plot: Alcoholic, crime squad detective Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) finds himself on the trail of an elusive serial killer who kills when the first snow of winter falls. With the help a new recruit (Rebecca Ferguson) he has to compare the new case with decades old ones to connect the dots and track down the a killer that's been on the loose for some time. Originally intended as another Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio project before then having Ridley Scott attached it. Due to delays, DiCaprio walked away, Scorsese ended up as executive producer and Scott walked as well. It could've been time constraints that led to them distancing themselves or just maybe these two experienced directors seen problems ahead and made a wise choice. There are undeniable problems and if truth be told, I fell asleep on the first viewing and went back to it again thinking that I hadn't given it my full attention and may have missed something. I hadn't. The film is sleep-inducingly dull and lacks so much narrative drive that it's hard to keep your eyes open. Put simply, it's a ridiculously lazy film with an insultingly lazy script. The sheer incoherence of it makes no difference whether you've slept through it or not. It's the quality involved that makes this a surprisingly awful endeavour though; there's Fassbender, of course, and also the usually reliable J.K. Simmons in the cast; there's Oscar nominated screenwriters in Frank's Peter Straughan and Drive's Hossien Amini penning the script to Jo Nesbø's taut crime novel and director Tomas Alfredson coming off the back of two solid critical hits in Swedish vampire film Let The Right One In and the labyrinthine adaptation of John LeCarre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. So what is the problem? The problem obviously stems from it being a rushed production. Apparently, Fassbender started shooting only two days after wrapping Assassin's Creed, and it shows. He looks absolutely exhausted; Jonny Greenwood actually created a score that ended up not getting used and Alfredson also claims that he came late to the production and that 15% of the screenplay was never actually filmed. You can tell. There are more plot holes here than you can shake a Harry Hole at and the narrative is so painfully slow that any snowmen getting built would've thawed out long before an investigation even got going. It's such a shame that this really didn't come together as all the ingredients are in place and had some genuine potential. In fact, it's astonishing how poor it is with the quality involved and it looks like any hope of a Harry Hole franchise could already be dead in the water while Michael Fassbender best be careful if he wants to retain his reputation. To be fair, the film's problems don't particularly lie with him but he needs to seriously take stock and be bit more discerning and choose projects more worthy of his abilities. Who knows? Maybe it's no one's fault and this is just a classic casualty of production difficulties and time constraints that led to no one being able to do their jobs effectively. What could've been a suspenful thriller ends up about as thrilling as eating yellow snow. Don't stay out in the cold too long with this one or you might catch a serious doze of incurable mediocrity. And never mind the misleading title of "The Snowman". It should've taken its name from its anatomy instead... Snow balls. Mark WalkerMark W Super Reviewer
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