The Snowman (2017)

Plot of The Snowman: Harry Hole is a detective who, for some reason seems to be sleeping rough. He is put on a case with a new recruit Katrine Bratt searching for a missing woman. He is estranged from his long time girlfriend, Rakel, but is still fond of her son, Oleg. Rakel has a new boyfriend, Matias. They get a call that a woman has been attacked and go to her house, but there she is killing a chicken. When they go away she is beheaded by an unknown person, using some sort of wire thing. There is a snowman outside her habitation. Later they go back and meet her twin sister. Harry steals some files from Katrine and finds they concern a case investigated by a veteran policeman years earlier. The veteran turns out to be Katrine’s father, who apparently blows his head off with a shotgun. Harry does not believe it was suicide. Meanwhile media centric businessman Arve Støp, who seems to have an interest in young women, is waylaid by Katrine who thinks he has something to do with  the death of her father. She waits for him in his hotel room, but is killed by an unknown person and turns up dead in the passenger seat of a car outside Harry’s flat. What else can happen?

Content: There is no actual sex and just a bit f nudity, although in the opening scene a woman is treated badly by a man who is afterwards heard to be having sex with her by her young son. Later she allows her car to skid onto a lake and, watched by the son, sits in it while it sinks beneath the ice.  Harry drinks a bit and smokes all the time, to the point that we are concerned for his health. We see him interacting with his former girlfriend, who sometimes gets close to him, and with her son who he likes. The new boyfriend also figures in these interactions. We see the other people about, one of whom takes into his house a young woman who he later presents to Støp who photographs her boobs. We see some of the murders taking place, including beheadings with the wire loop thing. They are unpleasant.

A View: This film was disliked by the critics. This is not surprising because it was really difficult to find out what was going on. Apparently due to budgetary restraints 15% of the script was not filmed, leaving the editors with a difficult, or possibly insurmountable task, and so it proved. On the plus side the atmosphere was well created, the snowy landscape breath-taking and the cast outstanding. So even with all that going for it, it is still not worth your time, so give it a miss.

Fun Fact:  The name of the detective ‘Harry Hole’ would apparently be Harry Hill if he had been British.