Smilla's Sense of Snow

Rating:
Summary: Smilla's sense of filmmaking
Review: "Smilla's Sense of Snow" has some good points and bad points, but overall it's a very unsatisfying film. It feels like an arty, beautiful European movie mixed together with an X-Files episode, with some goiod acting and some bad acting.

A little boy (Clipper Miano) falls from a Copenhagen rooftop. His neighbor and friend Smilla is immediately suspicious: Isaiah was afraid of heights, and his footsteps go straight to the edge as if he were chased off. (You don't need a special "sense of snow" to know that those bits of evidence are suspicious!) Though Smilla voices her suspicions, the police and doctors brush her off, claiming that it was just an accident. Of course, Smilla won't accept that.

Her mysterious ally and lover (Gabriel Byrne) seems to be either helping or hindering her as she searches for the truth about why Isaiah was murdered. The discovery of a supposedly-dead threat and a mysterious series of expeditions to Greenland will take Smilla on a dangerous journey to her old homeland -- and a bizarre secret that could destroy her.

One of the striking things about the movie is the sort of cold cleanness of it, especially in the various apartment buildings, where there isn't even dust in the corners under the stairs. (I suppose it's in keeping with the snow-and-ice theme) There's a lot of snow and ice, and unfortunately the movie sometimes seems icy too. Because I have not yet read the book, I don't know how much of this is due to Hoeg's book, but a different soundtrack and different direction would have made it feel less X-Filesian. As it is, the direction itself is quite nice, with lots of beautiful shots and good camerawork.

There are a few too many obstacles overcome by weird means in this movie; some of the plot twists will probably seem to come out of right field, giving this the attitude of a sort of Danish X-Files episode (complete with brilliant sidekicks, mystery allies, and a conspiracy). The viewers who don't like scifi realism (not space operas) won't like some of the plot twists. I didn't mind them, but I didn't have much of a problem either.

Julia Ormond does not work as Smilla: She's obviously supposed to be tough, scrappy and abrasive (sort of a female Dirty Harry) with a hidden vulnerable side, but unfortunately she can't manage it. (For example, when making the crotch-fungus comment, she sounds almost apologetic) Gabriel Byrne is quite good as the Mechanic, although his role is a bit empty compared to Smilla's. Vanessa Redgrave is good as the ultra-religious Elsa, and Richard Harris is also pretty good as Andreas Tork, a very crepy older man. And Clipper Miano is great as Isaiah, a cute little boy with very expressive eyes.

"Smilla's Sense of Snow" is not really a bad movie, but it definitely isn't a very good one. With a different lead actress it would have been a pretty good movie, but Ormond just can't carry the film. Aside from that, it's an acceptable suspense movie with some SF twists. Or for people who really, really like snow.

Rating:
Summary: Julia Ormond stunning in unusual thriller
Review: "Smilla's Sense of Snow" is an unusual, intriguing thriller that seems to fall in the love it or hate it category. If it seems a bit off center to American audiences, that may be because it's a Danish film in English with an almost entirely English cast. So, its point of view, production values and [alas!] its budget are quite Western European. This means its a bit slower, a bit more interested in character development and a lot more poetic and enigmatic than your ordinary thriller. I like it a great deal. To me, its main fault is that some of the story, especially towards the end, requires a much more spectacular and elaborate treatment than the film's producers could afford. In fact, it would not surprise me if it gets an American remake one day because the story is so interesting and visually complex. [Note: I have not read the novel by Peter Hoeg upon which it is based. It is available in paperback here at Amazon.com.]

The superb Julia Ormond plays Smilla Jeperson, a beautiful, intelligent and tortured young woman living in Copenhagen. She's a scientist specializing in the study of snow. She's also a person of unusual origins, the daughter of a Danish doctor and a native Greenlander mother. When she was six years old, her mother, a huntress in the icy wilds of Greenland, was killed, and Smilla was brought to Denmark to live. She never adjusted. One day she comes home to her apartment building to find a tragedy has occurred. A young Eskimo boy, an immigrant from Greenland, has been killed. Everyone says he fell from the roof, but Smilla quickly figures out he was murdered. She decides to find out what really happened to a boy she loved. Thus begins a detective story full of twists, turns and unnerving surprises.

The great supporting cast includes Vanessa Redgrave, Tom Wilkinson, Jim Broadbent, Richard Harris, Gabriel Byrne and Robert Loggia, but the film very much belongs to Ms. Ormond. The movie was directed by Bille August, whose "The House of the Spirits" and "Pelle the Conqueror" are highly recommended. The cinematography by Jorgen Persson is icily beautiful - filled with shades of blues and while. The haunting and evocative music is by Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams.

Rating:
Summary: the time is out of joint
Review: 'The time is out of joint. Oh cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right.' Hamlet likewise been a bestseller, and the general themes of novelism seem to undergo not even a basic improvement in taste; the aesthetic intellectualism produces identical scripts, and the artistic pioneerism is nevertheless out of joint. Gender roles, the corporative and scientific symbiocism, and the popular psychology in Smilla's Sense of Snow are likewise petty presentations of the political and social life; the filming technology and casting could have been the least source of comfort but the director restricted the camera technics to the filming of the polar territories of East Greenland and abstained in the indoor cuts of synoymous standards. The existentialism of Smilla is the existentialism of the art of Ingmar Bergman, but Smilla's code of ethics is that of a late bourgeois; and the Shakespearean characters are Shakespeare's characters; the artistic labourers better not be mistaken in this truth. Jacques Derrida has a good final word, there mentioned in the Specters of Marx a postmodernist justice that is of value; '...justice as incalculability of the gift and singularity of the an-economic ex-position to others... [J]ustice is... properly, the jointure of the accord...'

Rating:
Summary: The book is better....
Review: ....but the movie is OK too even if the role of the
Mechanic is made way less ambiguous in the film. i.e.
made into a 100% good guy. The book works better
because there, the only 100% good guy and straight arrow
is Smilla herself.

There is more detail in the book and a better sense
of the clash of cultures between Denmark and Greenland.

Ms Ormond gives a very creditable performance of a most
complex character. Smilla Jaspersen is one of the great
female characters of 20th century fiction. A loner, a woman,
a scientist and an outsider who is at the same time, sexy,
ballsy and as smart as hell. Heck I feel threatened just
thinking about her.

The scene where the cops threaten her with confinment is
chilling. The scenes with the little boy are truly moving.
But I wonder if a less European ( that is an American ) film
would have shown her in the same bed with him? We do truly
live in sad times that I have to think so.

Ms Ormond is ably supported by a slew of great European actors,
including Jim Broadbent, Vanessa Redgrave and the late Bob Peck
as Inspector Rahm. Though I do admit that in the book, Rahm is
a far more complex and ultimately better character than the
simple policeman that he is in the movie.

Overall this is a good European movie, with a strong strong
strong central character very well played by Julia Ormond.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie!
Review: A movie full of mystery and suspense! It's the story about a woman who tries to solve the mysterius death of a small boy. Great acting and nice directing!

Rating:
Summary: Unreliable suspense...
Review: A small boy is found dead after a fall from the roof of a tall building. It also seems odd that the foot steps in the snow lead in a straight pattern toward the edge of the roof. The neighbor, Smilla, decides to investigate the death of the boy closer and it appears that it is more than the accident that the police force and others want her to think. They try to stop her investigation into the death by threat and force, and it becomes apparent that it is not an accident. Smilla's Sense of Snow is a film that looses its grip on the audience by presenting obvious hints which the main character clearly misses.

Rating:
Summary: Her Sense is Good
Review: A small boy who is afraid of heights falls five stories from the roof of his apartment building to his death. Smilla, a woman who befriended the boy, knows that something is wrong, very wrong, and she won't rest until she learns the truth.

'Smilla's Sense of Snow' is a very intelligent mystery for the most part. The last 30 minutes aren't nearly as satisfying as the first 90, but the film still has a lot going for it: Ormond does a great job as Smilla, a loner who refuses to let anyone near her. The entire cast is very good. The plot is mostly tightly written, until the last several minutes as mentioned before. The real star of the show, however, is the location. It is very refreshing to see a film that takes place not in America, but in Denmark and in Greenland. One of the reasons, I believe, we go to the movies is to experience a place we've never been to before. I liked the fact that the film was set in Copenhagen and later in Greenland. I just wish the payoff had been as satisfying as the premise. Worth a look for the acting and the locations.

Rating:
Summary: Two and a half stars
Review: An intellectual thriller is such a rarity. I'd never heard ofthe book, so I went to see it with no expectations and an openmind. At the beginning, I was pleased and intrigued. So many interesting issues. Racism, indigenous peoples, alcoholism. Not to mention a keen mystery, and Ms. Ormond drugging guard dogs, climbing fences, saying things that would label her the b$!ch in other movies. Great! However, as the plot unrolled it seemed to me that most of what drew me in was just window dressing. I began to get the feeling that the director had no respect for his audience. This was a movie that took itself seriously, drew you in to take it seriously, then did things that if you were taking it seriously, you couldn't possibly take seriously. The first real problem occurred when the boat explodes and the Mechanic ("rescue central") pulls up just in time, having miraculously (or clairvoyantly) figured out exactly where she was and how to arrive just in time. I mean, come on! They have a phone conversation, he hears a boat horn, and from that knows where she is. Copenhagen is a port city, guys! If you've read the book, maybe you can make this make sense, but I hadn't. A movie shouldn't depend on your having read the book to make a sense of a scene like that. Well, I liked the whole premise of the movie, so I pretty much tried to hang on no matter how it stretched my suspension of disbelief, though I had a real problem with the way no matter how improbable it is that the mechanic will appear and rescue Smilla, he does, and/or every time she's being menaced, it's just him. Another scene that annoyed me was when Smilla finds the video, conveniently sitting on top of the pile, conveniently queued-up to where it needs to be, and stands there watching it in the open, in a place we've been told over and over again it's dangerous for her to be. Again, no respect for the audience. But what finally did it for me was that shower scene, where it looks like Smilla's going to have to fight for her life, but it turns out to be...The Mechanic. It seemed cynical to me, because the director deliberately draws you in to believe she's in danger, then pulls the rug out from under you, like in some horror movie. It was just too much in a movie full of those moments. I stopped caring about the characters. They were no longer real to me. Ms. Ormond referred to it as a good script, but I couldn't help wondering-didn't she notice all those flaws in logic and good storytelling? Anyway, on the plus side it is well acted, visually haunting, and has a good soundtrack. If you know better than to take the story seriously, you can enjoy it. But I can't help but wonder what the movie would have been, if the director could have jettisoned the silly plot, and had had more respect for his audience. It could have been something really special.

Rating:
Summary: A mixed bag
Review: An odd mix of genres, starting off as an internal psychological drama (cf. "Insomnia") and shading into science fiction/conspiracy thriller. The main appeal of this movie is trying to figure out what kind of movie it is.

Julia Ormand is supposed to be playing a primeval, almost feral woman who's constantly at odds with modern civilization. Instead she looks and acts so delicate that she's more like a pouty supermodel. When she finally shuts up her father's whiny mistress, it's a catfight, not the act of someone capable of serious violence.

The wintry photography is actually the best part of it, and gives a strong sense of place. Too bad it wasn't in the service of a better story.

Rating:
Summary: Great Dramatic Thriller
Review: Based on Peter Hoeg's book (which I haven't read, so I can't compare the two), "Smilla's Sense of Snow" follows Smilla Jaspersen (played by Julia Ormond, one of my favorite actresses), an almost soulless, hard-as-nails half-Inuit, living in Copenhagen, Denmark. One day she returns to her apartment complex to find her 6-year-old neighbor dead due to a tragic "accident," which she spends the entire movie trying to uncover. Her other neighbor (played by Gabriel Byrne) tags along after her like a sad puppy, later becoming her sidekick and lover when her life is almost snuffed out by the men she's trailing. But, even then, she doesn't completely trust him.

I have to admit: when I first saw "Smilla's Sense of Snow" several years ago, I didn't like it as much as I do now, mainly because I wasn't paying too much attention to it, and was confused and irritated by the X-files-like ending. But after watching it again from beginning to end, it's become one of my favorite movies. I loved the cold Danish/Greenlandic setting (just in time for Christmas) and was impressed by the performances and characters in this movie, Julia/Smilla especially. This is certainly one I'd recommend if you're looking for a good dramatic thriller to watch. Rated "R" for language, some violence, and a sex scene.