Mediocre thriller is filled with logical inaccuracies, but solid performances.
Detective Harry Hole investigates the disappearance of a woman whose pink scarf is found wrapped around an ominous-looking snowman.
I was a fan of the Jo Nesbo series, upon which this film is based. However, it does little to bring the book’s essence to life. Michael Fassbender was the perfect choice for Harry and he does play the role well. The character loses all his charm in the way the script portrays him though. The script spends too much time on irrelevant aspects of the story and has numerous, obvious scientific inaccuracies. The story is overly complex, running at just under 2-hours there’s so many red-herrings and no real-link between anything that it seems it would’ve made a better mini-series. Val Kilmer’s flashback sequences also seemed to have had his dialogue re-dubbed, so at times his dialogue doesn’t match his lips. The cast is good, but the poor script lets them down.
Overall it’s a dull thriller whose only redeemable feature is the excellent cast.
2 Stars
Review by Benjamin Maio Mackay
Screening courtesy of Universal Pictures