THE SNOWMAN : Tuesday 24th October 2017.

'THE SNOWMAN' which I saw earlier this week is potentially the first in what may turn out to be new film franchise for this Norwegian crime fighting detective Harry Hole, based on the Oslo Crime Squad character created by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo in the popular series of novels that have been translated into forty languages, and having sold over thirty million copies worldwide. Harry Hole appears in eleven novels so far, first launched in 1997 with 'The Bat', taking us up to 2017 with the release of 'The Thirst'. 'The Snowman' upon which this film is based is the seventh book in the series and was published in 2007. This film is Directed by Tomas Alfredson, whose previous Directing credits include the acclaimed 'Let The Right One In' and 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'. The film cost US$35M to bring to the big screen and has so far recouped US$23M, and has garnered generally lacklustre Reviews.

Research reveals that Harry Hole (here portrayed by Michael Fassbender) is a brilliant and driven detective prone to using unorthodox methods in his work, a classic loose cannon in the police force. Hole is unmarried and he has few close friends. He frequently makes enemies among his colleagues who, nevertheless, grudgingly respect him. He is a chain smoker and heavy drinker, although for the most part has his reliance on alcohol under control. The effects of his problems however, sometimes bring him into repeated conflict with his superiors, and some colleagues. Hole is also one of just a handful in the force to have undertaken special interrogation techniques and firearms training with the FBI.

Our film opens up on a desolate snow covered mountain side dwelling. Up pulls a VW Golf Police car, and out steps an overweight getting on in years man who delivers two gas cylinder bottles to the house, stashes them away inside and then sits down at the dining table with the mother of the household and her young teenage son. It is presumed to be sometime in the early 80's. The man tests the young lad on notable dates in history, and when the boy falters or answers incorrectly the women gets a stern beating. One such wrong answer sends the mother crashing backwards off her chair and onto the floor. Next up the young lad is spying on the mother and the man through the bedroom window as they have sex. When the boy is seen, the man hurriedly gets up out of the bed, gets dressed, storms out of the house ranting as he does so and speeds off in his car. The mother and boy give chase in the car across the spartan snow covered landscape. At some point the mother releases her hands from the steering wheel and the car careers off the road onto a frozen lake. The boy is screaming at his mother but she doesn't hear, her gaze fixed firmly on the road ahead, emotionless. The boy pulls on the handbrake and the car skids to a halt. He gets out of the passenger side door hearing the ice crack beneath the vehicle. His mother sits motionless as the boys struggles to open the drivers side door to free his mother. But she doesn't want to be freed as the vehicle slowly sinks into the icy depths below and disappears.

We then cut to the present day and waking up from a drunken stupor in a park shelter is Detective Harry Hole of the Oslo Police. He has been absent without leave for the past week or so, and meanders into the office to check on his mail, and is greeted by his superior officer with a reminder of leave protocols, a quick slap on the wrist and told not to do it again. He then ventures outside to a smoking balcony where he meets new recruit Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Fergusson) who has been assigned to his office. They exchange social niceties and go their separate ways, only to meet up hours later when Hole sees Bratt leaving for the day and catches a ride. She is on her way to a reported missing persons case, and Hole tags along. Meanwhile, in Hole's stash of mail is a handwritten cryptic letter sent directly from a supposed killer with a picture of a snowman at the bottom of the page - its plays on Hole's mind momentarily, but then he seems to dismiss it.

The missing person in question is Birte Becker (Genevieve O'Reilly) a married mother of a six or seven year old daughter. The night before her disappearance we see her car being followed by another on the way home from work. She arrives and is greeted by the young child, but the waiting father Filip Becker (James D'Arcy) is angry at her being late and he storms out of the house with bags packed on his way to some important business meeting out of town, leaving mother and daughter alone in the house. The next morning, the child wakes up and mother is gone. No sign of her, and a neighbour alerted the Police who send Bratt along to investigate. Outside in the garden is a squat snowman, with twigs for arms and coffee beans for a wry smile, gazing up the house.

The next case of a missing person requires a drive out to some remote farmstead for a case of a missing Sylvia Ottersen (Chloe Sevigny), but when they arrive Sylvia Ottersen is alive and well and shrugs it off as a prank call form her jilted boyfriend. Hole and Bratt leave from whence they came, only to be alerted over the Police band radio that Sylvia Ottersen has been reported missing . . . two minutes ago! They hastily turn around and return to the farmstead to be greeted by Ane Pedersen (Chloe Sevigny), Sylvia's identical twin, only to find the decapitated corpse of Sylvia Ottersen on the ground in the chicken shed. At this point Hole and Bratt surmise that the Snowman is playing with them and that he must have been watching them all along, calling in that Sylvia was missing even before she was butchered. Hole surveys the surrounding buildings and locates the head of Sylvia perched on top of a snowman at the bottom of a frozen abandoned silo.

In between time we catch glimpses of a back story featuring some Bergen based ace detective who came close to uncovering the Snowman murders some ten or fifteen years back. Detective Gert Rafto (Val Kilmer) was a drunken no nonsense kinda guy who met with a very sticky end at the hands of the Snowman, that was cleverly masked over to make it look like a suicide. When Hole goes to Bergen to investigate he is met by DC Svensson (Toby Jones) who simply reports that it was a plain and simple suicide and was therefore not investigated further. Hole, however, thinks there was more to it and examines further. His closer examination reveals a connection between Rafto and Bratt.

Another side story involves Arve Stop (J.K. Simmons) as an unscrupulous sinister media mogul who is spearheading Oslo's bid for the Winter Olympic Games which is about to be announced. Bratt has a feeling in her bones about Stop and goes undercover to investigate further, installing a hidden camera in his hotel room where she intends to proposition herself to him. Stop had dealings with Frederick Aasen (Adrian Dunbar) back in 2006 involving some kind of industrial development that went tits up leaving Aasen very bitter indeed. Needless to say it doesn't end well for Bratt as the Snowman gets to her first before Stop retires to his room for the night, and the Snowman has erased all footage from the hidden camera, and any evidence of a struggle.

The final plot scenario is the story of Hole's on again off again long term relationship with his ex-partner and art dealer Rakel (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her teenage son Oleg (Michael Yates) by her first marriage. Hole feels more than a semi-fatherly connection to Oleg despite Rakel's husband Mathias (Jonas Karlsson) also playing adoptive father duty who works as a medical consultant specialist that sees him away quite often on business or attending conferences, so giving Rakel the chance to rekindle with Hole, albeit temporarily - a fact that Mathias seems to accept.

Meanwhile back to the chilling killing as the body count rises and dismembered corpses turn up in all manner of locations, there seems little to connect the murderous spree other than motherhood, by neglect, abortion, jealousy etc. while their mysterious vanishings seems to coincide with fresh snow fall. Hole seems to do little actual detective work here, leaving all the investigative work to Bratt only to come along at the end and join the dots and bish bash bosh the serial killer is out in the open and exposed back where it all began in that desolate snow covered mountain side dwelling where Rakel and Oleg's lives are hanging in the balance. Hole sits across the table from his two loved ones almost powerless having to answer questions that determine whether the electric motorised garrote held by the Snowman is tightened or loosened around Rakel's neck. Needless to say, it comes down to a face off on a frozen lake with Hole shot to the ground and the Snowman approaching ready to plug him again at close range to finish the job.

This is a disjointed film where, alas, the sum of its parts are not greater than the (Harry) Hole. With a strong ensemble supporting cast who for the most part are left wanting to do more with the little screen time and dialogue afforded them, the film meanders from one grizzly killing to the next while Hole and Bratt join the seemingly simple dots to expose the serial killer. Fassbender and Ferguson are well cast, but that alone can't save this film that is too busy with side stories that go nowhere and add little value instead of getting down and dirty with the detective work and concentrate on what drives The Snowman to commit his unthinkable crimes. When the quality of Scandinavian police driven crime drama film and television is so good, despite the snow covered Norwegian vistas, this film feels like a hurried by the numbers affair that I'm sure will leave the legions of fans of the source novel thinking WTF! If Harry Hole does return to the big screen in another adaptation, and Fassbender could do so easily, let's hope that the lessons learned from this first instalment bode well for any follow-up as there is just enough of a foundation to do so.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 19th October 2017.

The 2017 Adelaide Film Festival drew to a close on Sunday evening 15th October after eleven days of showcasing the finest in local South Australian, national Australian and international films either recently released or in many cases receiving the Australian or worldwide Premier screening. This year there were ten feature films in Official Competition which included six Australian Premieres and features from around the festival circuit including Cannes and Toronto. They were Boris Khlebnikov’s 'Arrythmia', Mikhail Red’s 'Birdshot', Ofir Raul Graizer’s 'The Cakemaker', Luca Guadagnino’s 'Call Me By Your Name', John Cameron Mitchell’s 'How To Talk To Girls at Parties', Rungano Nyoni’s 'I Am Not A Witch', Mahommad Rasoulof’s 'A Man Of Integrity', Pedro Pinho’s 'The Nothing Factory', Joachim Trier’s 'Thelma', and Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner 'The Square'.

The closing night film this year was the Sophie Fiennes Directed documentary 'Grace Jones : Bloodlight and Bami'. IMDB summarises the noted film which also opened the Documentary section at TIFF earlier this year, as 'larger than life, wild, scary and androgynous - Grace Jones plays all these parts. Yet here we also discover her as a lover, daughter, mother, sister and even grandmother, as she submits herself to our gaze and allows us to understand what constitutes her mask.' It goes on to say 'in Jamaican patois, 'Bloodlight' is the red light that illuminates when an artist is recording and 'Bami' means bread, the substance of daily life. 'Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami' weaves together the layers of Grace Jones' public and private life, as she moves effortlessly between different facets: she is gypsy, artist and partying hedonist, warm and funny but also a fierce and tenacious businesswoman.'

In terms of official competition winners and grinners, these are :
2017 Adelaide Film Festival International Best Feature Fiction Award, presented to :
* 'I Am Not A Witch' closed TIFF this year, was shown in the Directors Fortnight at Cannes this year, and is the highly acclaimed Directorial debut of Zambian born Welsh raised Director and Screenwriter Rungano Nyoni. Telling the story of a nine year old orphan girl Shula (newcomer Maggie Mulubwa) who, following a banal incident in the village where she lives, is accused of witchcraft. After a hasty trial at which she is found guilty, she is banished and exiled to a camp in the middle of the nowhere desert, with mostly elderly women 'witches'. At the camp her initiation ceremony is where she is shown the rules surrounding her new life as a witch. Like the other resident witches, Shula is tied by a ribbon which is attached to a coil that is tethered to a large tree. She is told that should she ever cut the ribbon, she'll be cursed and transformed into a goat. Combining magic realism, social commentary and a deadpan sense of humour it is the talented cast of no-name Actors that persuaded the Jury, that this was the standout winner.

2017 Adelaide Film Festival Flinders University International Best Documentary Award, presented to :
* 'Taste of Cement' is Directed by Ziad Kailhoum in only his second documentary feature film outing, and was Written by him too. This film poignantly paints a picture of construction workers in exile. Described as an empathetic encounter with people who have lost their past and their future, locked in the recurring present. Here the Director has crafted a documentary of Syrian construction workers building new skyscrapers overlooking the city of Beirut out of the ruins created by the Lebanese civil war. At the same time their own homes are being bombed back in Syria. A curfew prohibits them from leaving the construction site after the days work is finished and so every night in their meagre and makeshift dwelling below the skyscraper the news from their homeland, the memories of the war and what they left behind plague them. Mute and imprisoned in the cement underground, they must endure until the new day arrives where the hammering and welding drowns out their nightmares, unable to construct any sort of life for themselves . . . only others, and in a country where they are alienated, unwanted and disenfranchised from society.

2017 AFTRS (Australian Film, Television and Radio School) International VR Award, presented to :
* 'Nothing Happens' Directed and Written by Michelle and Uri Kranot, this twelve minute animated short Virtual Reality film presents a new way of looking. It's a film about spectatorship, about watching and being watched. Its about being present.

Turning attention back to this week then, there are six new films to tease that movie going dollar from out of your wallet. We launch with a Norwegian set serial killer thriller chiller based on one of a hugely popular collection of novels; then we go to the mother of all cataclysmic climatic conditions that promises to wreak storm and tempest down on an unsuspecting world that only one humble man can prevent; before moving onto a Victorian England horror offering of murder most foul at the hands of a legendary creature. We then go to a RomCom  featuring a recently separated Mum of forty getting all jiggy with a twenty something year old lodger lad with far reaching consequences; and up next is a doco of the 1,200 mile pilgrimage of eleven Tibetans that takes seven months to traverse on foot, while lying down prone on the ground every seven or eight paces or so out of their faith and devotion to their God. We then wrap up with an animated feature of a young lads journey to connect with his long last Dad, and discovering more than he bargained for when he eventually does.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are here cordially invited to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon experience during the coming week.

'THE SNOWMAN' (Rated MA15+) - here we have the first in what may turn out to be new film franchise for this Norwegian crime fighting detective Harry Hole, based on the Oslo Crime Squad character created by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo in the popular series of novels that have been translated into forty languages and having sold over thirty million copies worldwide. Harry Hole appears in eleven novels so far, first launched in 1997 with 'The Bat', taking us up to 2017 with the release of 'The Thirst'. 'The Snowman' upon which this film is based is the seventh book in the series and was published in 2007. This film is Directed by Tomas Alfredson, whose previous Directing credits include the acclaimed 'Let The Right One In' and 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'.

Research reveals that Harry Hole (here portrayed by Micahel Fassbender) is a brilliant and driven detective prone to using unorthodox methods in his work, a classic loose cannon in the police force. Hole is unmarried and he has few close friends. He frequently makes enemies among his colleagues who, nevertheless, grudgingly respect him. He is a chain smoker and heavy drinker, although for the most part has his reliance on alcohol under control. The effects of his problems however, sometimes bring him into repeated conflict with his superiors, and some colleagues. Hole is also one of just a handful in the force to have undertaken special interrogation techniques and firearms training with the FBI. In this story Hole investigates the disappearance of a female victim during the first snowfall of Winter. He soon deduces that a serial killer, known as 'The Snowman' may be responsible and active only during the season. He teams up with talented recruit Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson) and together the pair must trawl through decades old cold cases to connect the dots to the latest killing spree if he is to thwart this elusive killer before another grisly murder is carried out. The film also stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Val Kilmer, J.K. Simmons, Toby Jones, Chloe Sevigny and James D'Arcy, has so far taken US$9M and has garnered less than favourable Reviews.

'GEOSTORM' (Rated M) - here Dean Devlin Co-Writes, Co-Produces and for the first time Directs this Sci-Fi disaster action film that was made for a budget of US$81M with principal photography beginning three years ago in October 2014. Come late 2015 and test screenings met with a generally poor response resulting in extensive reshoots occurring in late 2016 and into early 2017 with the added bonus of new Producer Jerry Bruckheimer coming on board to deliver the film that is released this week. Set in the near future when a bunch of satellites circle our planet controlling the weather conditions, it only takes an unforeseen malfunction to see the worlds climatic circumstances change with cataclysmic consequences. It takes Jake Lawson (Gerard Butler) to don his space suit and launch himself headlong into the outer reaches to fix the problem with the satellites that he designed in the first place, before a storm event takes place like no other the world has ever seen. The film also stars Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Andy Garcia and Abbie Cornish.

'THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM' (Rated MA15+) - this British horror mystery film is Directed by Juan Carlos Medina, based on the 1994 novel 'Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem' written by Peter Ackroyd. The film had its world premier at TIFF way back in September 2016, and was only released in the UK on 1st September this year and now gets its limited Australian release this week. The story unfolds when a series of murders occurs in the Limehouse district of east London in Victorian England. These deaths shake the local community who believe that a mythical creature from the dark days - the legendary Golem - must be responsible. Leaving cryptic messages written in the blood of its victims, Scotland Yard assignes the case to Inspector Kildare (Bill Nighy), a seasoned detective, who is determined to crack the case. With a list of suspects narrowed down from a diary of the Golem's crimes supposedly hand written by the Golem itself, Kildare must rely of his sense of detection, the help of witnesses, and his instincts to bring the supposed Golem to justice and put an end to the murders. Also starring Eddie Marsan, Olivia Cooke, and Douglas Booth. The film has so far taken less than US$2M despite generally favourable Reviews.

'HOME AGAIN' (Rated M) - this RomCom is Directed by first timer Hallie Meyers-Shyer and Written by her too and stars Reece Witherspoon as Alice Kinney a recently separated mother of two young children who has relocated back to Los Angeles and moved in with her mother Lilian Stewart (Candice Bergen) and has designs on establishing her own interior design business. About to celebrate turning the BIG 4-Oh! Alice meets Harry, George and Teddy (Pico Alexander, Jon Rudnitski and Nat Wolff respectively) three aspiring film makers who all need some place to live. Alice decides to let the three men reside in the guesthouse temporarily, but complications soon begin to manifest themselves when Alice and Harry begin an affair and her new found freedom and happiness is on the verge of collapse when her ex-husband Austen (Michael Sheen) arrives on her doorstep carrying a suitcase. The film cost US$12M to make and has so far grossed US$30M and has garnered average Reviews since its Stateside release in early September.

'PATHS OF THE SOUL' (Rated PG) - this Chinese film was Written, Produced and Directed by Zhang Yang are premiered at TIFF back in 2015, before being presented an numerous film festivals on the circuit over the following two years or so. The film was released in China in June this year, and has been highly acclaimed by Critics and audiences alike. The film chronicles the journey of eleven ordinary Tibetans as they take the cross country pilgrimage of twelve hundred miles from their home village to Lhasa, prostrating themselves on the ground every seven or eight paces or so along a journey that lasts seven months. An extraordinary story of human devotion, faith and redemption featuring stunning vistas of Tibet through the seasons.

'THE SON OF BIGFOOT' (Rated PG) - is a Belgian and French co-produced CGI animated feature film Directed by acclaimed Belgian animator and CGI artist Ben Stassen, with Jeremy Degruson. This story tells of teenager Adam Harrison (Pappy Faulkner) who sets out on a journey to find his long lost father, only to discover that he is in fact the legendary Bigfoot. He has been in self imposed exile hiding in the forests for years to protect his family and himself from an unscrupulous company who want to exploit Bigfoot's DNA and conduct scientific experiments on him. As father and son begin to bond, young Adam discovers that like his father, he has been gifted with super powers that include being able to converse with animals. However, it's not long before the company who have been tracking Adam's whereabouts, close in on father and son with potentially dire consequences for them both. The film has met with critical acclaim for its top notch CGI animation, story telling, and production values. A film for kids of all ages.

With six new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, taking in a snowbound serial killer crime thriller; the mother of all weather conditions; a Victorian England horror mystery; a RomCom; a prostrating pilgrimage; and a family friendly animated feature suitable for kids of all ages. Remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephiles afterwards here at Odeon Online, and meanwhile, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-