Review: The Snowman.

23 years ago, director Tomas Alfredson began his career working most of the time with the comedy genre. With The Snowman, he makes his first immersion in police genre, trying to tell in 2 hours a detective story that has some loose ends.

The Snowman is based on the detective novel Harry Hole, written by Jo Nesbø one of the most successful Norwegian writers in his nation. This story is part of a great detective series, Harry Hole, a talented policeman by nature but with many personal problems and fears to carry, which calms them with their addiction to alcohol.

The disappearance of a woman in Oslo during the first snow of winter is the trigger of the plot of the film, where Harry, with the help of a new police, Katrine Bratt, will quickly discover that this case is linked to other disappearances and murders that happened. for several years, and the few clues point to a serial killer with a sinister obsession and a strange way of committing his crimes: he places snowmen in the locations where he kidnaps his victims. Also, the killer will be leaving messages for Harry, motivating him to grab the case and try to capture it.

It takes a bit to bring the rhythm to the film, but after the first half hour everything begins to have a little connection, through different timelines, all the plot knots unravel.

The problems that The Snowman presents are a few and end up interfering in the development of the story. Tomas Alfredson distributes the rhythms of the film a little wrong in the hours of duration, during this time a slow narrative develops but with a character construction harmonizes; creating links between them and makes their problems and motivations very clear. Everything to get to the end in an accelerated way, placing all the missing pieces and leaving aside the previous thing.

At times it can be predictable, taking away all the tension that this detective storyline might have presented. Except for specific moments, everything that could be predictable disappears and then falls into the same hole.

Many proposals that could have been good for the plot are left in the background or some motivations of the characters end without a clear intention. This is also the case with certain elements that are present in these types of films, the narrative and tension, despite having a bad way sometimes, manage to stand out along with other aspects in The Snowman. One of the things that stand out the most are the performances; Michael Fassbender proves that being a Mutant, a millennial assassin, or a drunken cop. He knows how to carry his character well at all times. The secondary characters achieve their mission, J. K. Simmons, for example, achieves a relevant participation not because of their screen time, but because of the transcendence of their character.

As a great point to highlight is the photograph of the film. The different places and regions of Oslo that were used were perfectly integrated. Silent and solitary landscapes where the most predominant is the snow in the vast majority of scenes.

On the other hand, the film received strong criticism, mainly from the specialized critics of Norway, especially for how the country's culture is shown. Reaching the point that even the creator of all the detective Harry Hole stories, Jo Nesbø, was disappointed by this adoption of his literary work.

The Snowman promised at first many more than he even offered us. Not only for the plot of the film and the renowned cast that composes it, but for the context of which it is part. After this, the panorama is as bleak as Oslo's own streets at night.