“The Snowman” is getting really bad reviews, but if you like gruesome thrillers, you are in for a treat! Set in Norway and similar to “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” the film is about a killer so twisted he melds snowmen with dead body parts. Ridiculous, yes, but I was hooked! As the killer picks on vulnerable, usually pregnant women, I reflected that this was a killer I really hated! Who can find and stop this devious madman? Why, Harry Hole, alcoholic detective, perfectly played by Michael Fassbender. He almost seems like he could be a killer himself. As private eye and killer go mano a mano, Rebecca Ferguson and Charlotte Gainsbourg give us women on distress worth caring about.
Based on a best-selling novel that is part of a series, “The Snowman” indeed has the feeling of a trashy paperback thriller. That’s not a bad thing. Thrillers work best when they’re not afraid of being outrageous, so this film starts out weird and then works its way to a memorably bizarre, gruesome climax. Although the film may not exactly be “good,” the cast and director push themselves and create a memorable experience. If you like trashy thrillers and prefer Michael Fassbender to wusses like Dwayne Johnson, go see “The Snowman.”
