The Snowman

Yes, we've been to the cinema again! that's three times in three weeks and probably more than we've been in the last three years. Although having picked up the program for December it seems that normal service will be resumed very shortly, because apart from the filmcasts from the Royal Ballet and West End Theatre, for which we will be away, there's nothing there that I want to see, although Son No 2 and the OH will doubtless go and see the new Star Wars (yawn) movie sometime over the Christmas break. 

So what can I say about The Snowman? Better than Bladerunner 2049, not nearly  as enjoyable as Thor Ragnarok. Before we went, Son No 1 told us darkly that it was a film he 'had heard nothing but bad things about', but there again he thinks that BR29049 is going to be his pick for best film of 2018, so what does he know? 

It's a workmanlike film, Snowman,  well told, although there's a bit of mumbling and everyone seems to suffer Scandinavian Disease, which is basically an inability to go into a space you believe to be dangerous and be unable to locate and/or use a light switch. Judging from The Killing, The Bridge, Those Who Kill, and a host of other Nordic crime dramas, almost everyone involved in law enforcement in he Nordic countries has an incurable case of this. Additionally in the real world no-one goes out in mid-winter in Oslo without a hat, and wearing a skirt that skims only the mid-thigh, do they? unless they want frostbite or to die of exposure? 

This is carping though, and while I'm busy carping can I just say that I thought Michael Fassbender was miscast as Harry Hole. I've read almost all the HH novels by J Nesbo and he just wasn't Harry. And it's not as though there isn't a  whole host of Nordic actors with excellent English who would have made a better job of it. 

Carping aside though, would I recommend it? well, perhaps not to pay and go and see. But, if you enjoy competent crime drama with beautiful scenery, worth a look when it pops up on the telly.