Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997)

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Lots of films begin well. SSoS begins exceptionally well. Aside from Orman being so attractive, there's so much potential; e.g., particularly the opening moments and it's potential relationship to the rest of the movie. And SSoS is able to sustain this level of suspense and intrigue for over an hour. After that, this viewer began to see that the filmmakers were unable to translate from the page to the screen as well with the tale's action-oriented, big-setting second half. Preposterous characters and events intrude. The last fifteen minutes of the work are - with due sincerity and sarcasm aside - laughable; e.g., stock footage of glacier shelving, iceberg birthing, etc., ridiculously interspersed with a sunny day where obviously nothing is happening. It's a shame. To say SSoS fizzles out is an understatement. Evaporates would be a better description.

I haven't read the novel, though I'm afraid I can imagine it being superior to this. Honestly, I've been putting off watching this for years. It's cool that a Dane wrote it, and that another one directed it. And it was actually partially filmed here, as well as, unusually, up in Greenland, and a little bit of Inuktitut is spoken. It just doesn't feel like much of anything was beefed up for the purpose of putting it up on the silver screen, and the fact of the matter is, it has to be bigger than it does on the page. As far as what is translated from the book goes, the mystery does work well. It is fairly engaging, and keeps you guessing to an extent. With that said, you know who's behind it the moment you see him, since *the score instantly becomes ominous when the camera shows him*. This has its entertaining moments, and occasional humor. The performances are great, though these talented actors have all done better work elsewhere. Ormond fails to make the character particularly likable, and her accent does not convince. Editing and cinematography are nice enough. There is infrequent strong language, some violence and a sex scene in this. I recommend this to big fans of those involved in its production. 6/10

It's rare that I don't fast-forward through a film these days. This was one film that had me riveted, though, at least for the first 3/4s of the picture. The quiet, tense thriller unfolded with perfect timing and ambiguous characters. The acting was top-notch and the characters multi- dimensional.Then suddenly the film takes a severe detour into "typical action movie." All subtlety is lost, characters become flat, pacing devolves and the whole thing becomes increasingly ridiculous. Enter the fast-forward! It was such a disappointment after that sustained great beginning. Who knows what happened. The end result leaves an unpleasant taste.

This mystery picture begins on a crashing-meteor opening and concerns about Smilla(Julia Ormond), a lonely scientist resident in Copenhagen. The grumpy Smilla is an half-America and half-Inuit with many problems of adaptation and her father(Robert Loggia) is a rich financier. When she returns home discovers the body of six-years-old friend named Isaiah(Miano) nearly her apartment building. Smilla believes the kid was killed and starts investigating , it leads to the Greenland mining company that is owner the magnate Tork(Richard Harris). Meanwhile she falls in love with her suspicious neighbor(Gabriel Byrne).The picture based on Peter Hoeg's best seller novel packs suspense,thrills,intrigue, tension and interesting character study. The story is well developed though its final fail to sustain the outcome and is a little bit crappy. Suspenseful and mysterious musical score by Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams. Exceptional secondary casting mostly formed by British actors such as Jim Broadbent,Vanessa Redgrave,Bob Peck, Tom Wilkinson, among them. Evocative and cold cinematography is consistently created by Jorgen Persson, Billie August's usual cameraman.Location photography is particularly breathtaking with impressive images like a large icebreaker ship, snowy outdoors and giant floes thawing, among others. This partially successful first attempt at the thriller and tense mystery is efficiently directed by August. Billie is the Danish's best director, an expert on intelligent dramas as ¨Pelle the conqueror¨which took the best foreign-language film Oscar , ¨Twist and shout¨,¨The best intentions¨, ¨House of spirits¨, and ¨Les Miserables¨. Rating : Well worth seeing, better than average.