and his ex-wife (Charlotte Gains-
bourg) particularly plays like the
climax of a long-running plotline
we haven’t been exposed to.
What’s frustrating about The
Snowman is that many of its nig-
gling issues could easily be fixed
by simply removing a couple
of pointless sub-plots and a
day or two of reshoots to fill in
the remaining narrative blanks.
The movie would greatly ben-
efit from letting the audience
know the killer’s identity from
the beginning, adding a touch
of suspense to every otherwise
innocuous scene they appear in.
As it is, the climactic reveal rais-
es more questions than answers,
and is another example of that
annoying trope of a killer who
behaves perfectly normally until
the climax, when they transform
into a moustache twirler.
At time of writing, The Snow-
man’s imdb page lists Claire
Simpson (an Oscar winner for
her work on Platoon) as its edi-
tor, while the print I saw named
Schoonmaker in the role. I can’t
help but surmise the producers
of The Snowman believed their
film could be saved in the edit-
ing bay. Simpson and Schoon-
maker may be as good as their
craft gets, but this is a turd even
they couldn’t polish.
w
The Snowman
1 ½ stars out of 5
Directed by: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson,
Chloë Sevigny, Val Kilmer, JK Simmons, Charlotte
Gainsbourg, David Dencik, Toby Joness
NJ STAGE 2017 - Issue 40
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