Rating: 6.5/10

A big, fat snowball is thrown at a young mother’s window. The mother in a longsleeve shirt with bright blonde hair stands up to inspect who just interrupted her nightly reading. There is no one outside.

There is only a small snowman. One ball of snow on top, one bigger ball of snow on the bottom. With small black rocks for eyes and mouth and two skinny, brown sticks for the arms it just sits there, omnisously. The very next morning the woman disappears.

“The Snowman” is a crime, mystery, thriller movie that takes place in Norway on the first snow of winter. It focuses on a detective and his partner who is trying to solve the disappearances of women where a snowman is left at the scene. The two cops try to connect the dots from cold cases to outwit this serial killer.

I am torn. On one hand this movie succeeds in so many things, but on the other hand this movie fails at so many things.

The editing in this movie is atrocious. From the opening scene this movie was already going down hill. Things didn’t flow right. At one point you see someone getting attacked, and then it immediately cuts to a very poor love scene, then it cuts to something barely related to the movie as a whole, and then it cuts back to someone getting attacked.

Scenes are just thrown out at you like pie to a clown’s face. Films like “Batman vs Superman” or “Catwoman” have been ripped apart due to bad editing. I assumed Hollywood learned from it’s mistakes, but honestly, I don’t even understand how filmmakers continue to make these same mistakes over and over again.

Oh, the acting was just the worst. Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, J.K. Simmons, all A-list hollywood actors, and all completely lacked charisma in their performances. They just stood their. Brooding, staring, breathing as if something is going to happen, but nothing actually does.

Now, I understand that this movie is crime, thriller and that the characters need to be tense and not very charismatic. However, what I mean by charisma is that they just didn’t show emotion or they didn’t bring any life to their characters. I don’t know if it was the director’s fault or the actors’ fault, but someone did something wrong and it almost ruined the whole film.

“It almost ruined the whole film.” Why did I stay in the theatre? Why did I not run out with my arms flailing in the air screaming for a refund? This is the answer: the visuals and the score.

“The Snowman” has the best cinematography of 2017. Seriously, this movie is so beautiful, but at the same time bone-chilling. With the use of snowy weather, spectacular building structures that hauntingly light up in the snowfall and unique pans and zooms, the cinematographer paints a beautiful, spooky picture. The visual style of this film really took me by surprise, and I hope other moviegoers will appreciate it as well.

The score wasn’t amazing, but rather nostalgic. I am a huge fan of snowy weather in movies, like “The Shining” appealed to me, but the other thing The Shining excelled at was the music. “The Snowman’s” music beared a striking resemblance to the “The Shining”. That’s why I liked the score so much. It took me back to when I watched “The Shining” for the very first time and the eerie sounds the music produced just sent chills down my spine, and that’s exactly what “The Snowman” did to me.

Yes, this movie obviously has it problems, but it also has it’s potential. I could see the movie getting nominated for awards like best cinematography or production design which it so rightfully deserves. However, this movie is a struggle to get through. A pretty picture isn’t worth looking at if there isn’t context.