Smilla's Sense of Snow

The accountant was all faith; the boy's mother was all incoherence (no matter whether she was drunk, sober, or just lost her son, incoherence seemed to be her only response to it); Benja was all pouty and spiteful (for no apparent reason); and Smilla was all rude. Yes, we are given a "reason" for that, but if at her age, you still don't have a *basic* grip on your childhood issues, you're more likely to make a pitiable hero than a likable one. While I found the plot easy enough to follow, I found it somewhat difficult to care for its "heroes."

I read the book before I watched the movie. Usually I am not too fond of films made after a book. This is one of the rare exceptions.

The makers succeeded well in capturing the complexity of the book's characters. Julia Ormond does remarkably well as the moody, unpredictable Smilla Jaspersen. So does Gabriel Byrne in the role of the rather secretive Mechanic. The brilliant Richard Harris is in here too, one of the many movies he probably said that it would be his last. The rest of the cast fits in well. Nice to see that they didn't try to get all big names, but rather actors who can fill a role appropriately.

Of course the movie isn't perfect, but in order to give that book full credit, they would have had to make a 4 hour film. Especially the second part, with all the events on the ship and in Greenland, is rather condensed. Those scenes could have used a bit more air to breathe, less pace.

Nevertheless I really like this movie, I have been watching it several times already. And now I think I am going to read the book again... (8/10)

n a cold December day in Copenhagen, a young boy named Isaiah falls to his death from the roof of the block of flats where he lives. The official police view is that he slipped and fell while playing on the roof. Smilla Jaspersen, a neighbour of Isaiah and his mother, does not accept that his death was an accident. Isaiah had a fear of heights, so was unlikely to have been playing on the roof; moreover, the footprints in the snow do not support the police version. Smilla therefore decides to start her own investigation to find out what really happened.

Isaiah and his mother belonged to Denmark's Greenlandic minority, and Smilla herself grew up in Greenland, the daughter of a Danish father and Greenlandic mother. She is in her late thirties, and works as a freelance mathematician and expert on the physics of ice and snow, although she has no formal academic qualifications. She discovers, however, that Isaiah's father was an employee of a Danish mining corporation and that he died in mysterious circumstances during an expedition to Greenland organised by this corporation. She begins to suspect that Isaiah's death was also in some way linked to the company, and learns that they are organising another voyage to Gela Alta, a small island off the coast of Greenland, although she does not know what the object of this voyage is. Nevertheless, she believes that the key to the mystery lies on this remote island and joins the crew of the ship as a stewardess, just ahead of the police who resent her interference in the case and are trying to arrest her.

This was one of those films that I enjoyed more than the original novel. Peter Hoeg's book was itself in some ways reminiscent of a film. The first half, with its urban setting, its tough, gritty investigator and its suggestion of a web of corruption and wrongdoing in high places, reminded me of a Humphrey Bogart style film noir, and the second part, set on the ship as it makes its way through the Arctic ice, of one of those filmed versions of Alistair MacLean thrillers that were so popular in the sixties and seventies. I found, however, that it suffered from an over-complex plot and was too slow moving to work as a thriller. Bille August's version removes some of the complexity of the plot and moves along at a faster pace. The revelation about exactly what lies below the ice comes earlier in the film than it does in the book- possibly August realized that the book's ending, more science fiction than science fact, was one of its weak points, and wanted to get this detail out of the way to allow the closing scenes of the film to concentrate more on the battle between Smilla and the villains. The film keeps, however, the book's atmospheric sense of place- there were some wonderful shots of Copenhagen in winter and of the Arctic ice.

Julia Ormond seemed to be the cinema's Big New Thing of the mid-nineties. Her role in 'Smilla's Sense of Snow' followed starring roles in three big Hollywood films, 'Legends of the Fall', 'First Knight' and 'Sabrina'. Since then she seems to have disappeared from the radar altogether and I have often wondered what has happened to her.. Her performance in 'Smilla', however, is a good one and she makes an appealing heroine. Rather more appealing, in fact, than Hoeg's original character, who combines a strong sense of justice with a gift for rudeness and sarcasm. Of the other actors, the best was Richard Harris as the chief villain, although he was probably considerably older than the character envisaged by Hoeg.

Although it is very different in its visual style, this atmospheric thriller is perhaps the nearest that the modern cinema comes to old-fashioned film noir. Despite its weaknesses it remained watchable throughout. It confirmed my view (based on 'Pelle the Conqueror' and 'The House of the Spirits') that Bille August is a highly talented director. 7/10

This is not a movie about how Inuit hunt for seals. Smilla lives in present day Copenhagen. This movie is anything but formulaic. It is part murder mystery, part paranoid thriller with faceless villains like the Conversation, part James Bond, with a drop of science fiction, and like none of those all that much.

The victim of a possible murder is a 6 year old boy whom you gradually get to know and care for deeply via flash backs of his tragic life.

One of the themes is trust. Smilla never knows whom she can trust. We in the audience weave back and forth trying to decide who is truly trying to help her and who to kill her or at least deflect her from her quest of finding out why and how someone would harm that little boy.

The movie is a maddening puzzle with clues coming thick and fast, but nothing making much sense. All you know is some very powerful people are involved and are ruthless in keeping silence. Smilla takes huge risks to gather information she has no particular reason to believe may be relevant other than others seem to be hiding it. Like a standard mystery novel, all is finally explained.

One interesting twist is, you in the audience even begin to distrust the caustic Smilla with her one-pointed push for vengeance.

Usually in a movie with a great many characters, I often find it hard to keep from confusing them. In this movie, the characters are all distinctly drawn, partly with a rich mixture of accents, so I had no such problem.

Some of the casting choices seemed a bit off, in particular Smilla's father's new teenage wife, Benja, who was obviously much older than a teenager, which made some of Smilla's cracks about her age not ring true.

Bille August's "Smilla's Sense of Snow" starts off with great promise. An opening sequence that's a terrific hook segues into an introduction of the character of Smilla Jasperson, played perfectly by the lovely Julia Ormond. Smilla is self-isolated, deeply unhappy, and unapproachable. Her only real friend is the young Inuit boy, Isaiah, who dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances, and Smilla determines to uncover the reasons for his death. For the first two reels, this film is a terrific mystery story with good pacing, fine acting, and evocative cinematography. Characters with uncertain motives come and go as the story unfolds, most played by a fine stable of talented actors. But then in the third reel, the film collapses. I'm not talking about a slow descent into mediocrity here; I'm talking about a precipitous nosedive. Out of the blue, the story suddenly switches to an action/thriller format that is poorly written, directed, and edited. New, undeveloped characters are suddenly thrown into the mix, each a deus ex machina as the increasingly unrealistic plot requires. The film's denouement, in which the underlying mystery is revealed, is so scientifically ridiculous both in terms of biology and especially in physics that I felt thoroughly cheated. It's as if the entire enterprise were rushed to completion due to a looming shortage of time, money, and interest. What a pity. Even so, the first two thirds of the film stand up well on their own, and my rating is based on that. Rating: 7/10.