The Snowman 2017

     During the first snow of winter, an elite crime squad’s lead detective investigates the disappearance of a female murder victim.  An elusive serial killer may have become active again?  Are decades-old cold cases connected to a new series of murders?  Harry Hole is an inspector with the Norwegian Police Service’s Oslo district.  The first missing person is Britte Becker and she vanished from her house.

     There is a lot of violence and gore in this film with some scenes shown during the murder and some afterwards.  The scenery is very beautiful but harsh and unforgiving of any mistakes.  There are very few positive messages in this film and it’s so full of violence that you almost don’t notice the drinking, drugs and smoking?  I wonder if the actors thought about any of this before they signed on?  2* (I didn’t like this movie)

119 min, Crime directed by Tomas Alfredson with Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jonas Karlsson, Michael Yates, Ronan Vibert, J.K. Simmons, Val Kilmer, David Dencik, Toby Jones, Genevieve O’Reilly, James D/Arch, Jete Laurence, Adrian Dunbar, Cloe Sevigny.

Note:  Imdb 5.1 out of 10, 8% critic 19% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 2.9* with 34 reviews, Roger Ebert 1 ½*, Rolling Stone 1* out of 4*, Empire 2* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Telemark, Oslo, Hordaland, Notodden, Buskerud, Norway.  Michael Fassbender was in Assassin’s Creed for 2016 and he started this movie just two days after the wrap.  Val Kilmer’s lines are dubbed, Kilmer said was healing from cancer and his tongue was still swollen but healing.  Marin Scorsese was originally set to direct but he was executive producer instead.  There is another film The Snowman from 1982.  This film is not a remake and it’s based on the 2007 novel from Norwegian crime-writer Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series.  Norwgian kids in a small town make the snowmen in the film with help from DesignIce from Trogstad.  Production budget was $35 million with worldwide gross of $43.1 million.