How difficult is it to make good – or even a
simply decent – movie?
The Snowman shows us.
Start with a production team of 13
professionals who between them have made scores of good and many great movies,
including Martine Scorcese (and even though we are not sure how long he stayed
attached to the project once he gave up his initial Directing role his name is
still up there on the credits).
Take
a best selling Scandi-noir murder
mystery and get a top notch screen writer/adaptor in, Peter Straughen, who
adapted Tinker Tailor, Soldier Spy, The Debt and Wolf Hall, and wrote Frank.
Shoot the film in Norway, surely one of
the most photogenic locations on earth, with Dion Beebe behind the camera (Edge of Tomorrow, Collateral, Chicago, Into
The Woods, Miami Vice etc) with a cast of first class actors in front of it,
headed up by Michael Fassbender and supported by Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte
Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, J. K. Simmons
and Val Kilmer.
Get Tomas Alfreson to direct it, following on
from his brilliant ‘Let the Right One In’
and the accomplished ‘Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy.’
And then ask Thelma
Shoonmaker, doyen of editors, to cut
it.
I list these collaborators because
the success or failure of a film does not simply depend on the Director, but on
all those with executive (by which I mean decision making) responsibilities, all
of whom deserve to garner the praise or to shoulder the blame.
Some times though, I guess a plan simply does not
come together.
So with all this talent on board we can see how hard
it must be to make a good, or even decent film, because The
Snowman is not good. It is not even
decent.
Alfreson has spoken with candor about the
hurry in which the production was mounted and its ‘compressed production schedule’, the need for extensive reshoots
afterwards and the 10 – 15% of the script that still never got on film.
I think that the only elements that escape
unscathed are the Norwegian landscape and the images of Dion Beebe, the
cinematographer, though it is hard to
blame the cast. They can only work off
the script, and that doesn’t really work at all. Their characters are too thin to relate to,
or are abandoned. Harry Hole is pretty
much the standard film-noir cop, a
drunk with a chaotic private life and a reputation for professional brilliance. Fassbender is given no chance to show the
man’s brilliance, and without his character is simply sad and boring. There is just one short scene with a young
girl whose mother has gone missing where
Hole briefly comes alive. Rebecca
Ferguson and Charlotte Gainsbourg do their considerable best – but again are
underwritten. Toby Jones is
superfluous, J. K. Simmons is under –
even mis – used. Val Kilmer’s appearance
and sound are bizarre.
The plot is confused and confusing. Soren Sveistrup, who wrote most of The Killing, was brought in to doctor the
script along with Hossein Amimi, who wrote 47
Ronin, but there are still few thrills.
So unless you enjoy watching a badly made
movie – and there are perverse joys to be found in doing so for some – please
don’t bother with The Snowman. Let it just melt away without staining the reputations
of those involved. Be kind. And remember, when a really good film comes along , and they do, be
grateful. To mix my metaphors, even with
so much talent on board the ship can still sink.
