Film: The Snowman

Tonight's midweek movie on RTÉ was The Snowman - a thriller, set in snowy parts, and starring Michael Fassbender. Which I hadn't seen - and so I made it my business to watch it.

It's set in an apparently permanently snowy Norway - the action switches between Oslo and Bergen. He's a hard-drinking detective in Oslo - he's renowned for his work on murder cases, but with Norway's low crime rate, he's a bit under-used. His ex is Charlotte Gainsbourg - looking, I must say, a lot better than she has in the various Lars von Trier films I've seen her in! But then, she's treated a bit better in this film than in those..

Anyway, his life brightens up considerably when women start to go missing - all married with kids, and in each case, a snowman is built outside the house as a calling card. Turns out they have a serial killer on their hands. Looking deeper into things, he discovers a similar case, some years back, up in Bergen - led by another hard-drinking detective, Val Kilmer. Toby Jones worked with him at the time. J. K. Simmons turns up as a businessman with seedy connections.. Also stars Adrian Dunbar.. but for the life of me, I can't remember what he was doing in it.

So, it looks gorgeous. Some fantastic scenery - spectacular bridges, and the gorgeous panorama from above Bergen. Indoor shots are brilliantly lit by reflected light from the snow outside, during the day. And it's a decent thriller, you know. It's just - puzzling. I mean, you can guess from the beginning what the motive is; it's just trying to follow the thread of the story that's rather difficult - I had to look it up online myself to clarify some things, and discovered that no, it wasn't just a lapse of attention on my part. You really can't follow everything from the script. I recommend either giving up entirely on following the plot - or having a copy of the Wikipedia article beside you, so you can follow along in the middle. Really helps.

For Saturday, would you believe, Up in the Cheap Seats are watching something on Amazon Prime Video - which I have a year's subscription to, with the new telecom contract we took out! Hadn't bothered with it till now, but I just activated it. But wouldn't you know it, what the group are watching isn't on the list in Ireland. Rats. Never mind, there's plenty I can watch.. and top-rated in my list at the moment (and available in Ireland) is Belonging: The Truth Behind the Headlines, an exposé of the collusion between UK governments and business, and how it erodes our human rights. As for Fleabag, also available on Amazon Prime - I'm three episodes in, and absolutely loving it.

As for my Mubi subscription, it was due to end today - so I clicked to cancel. Wouldn't you know it, they were so upset to see me go.. they gave me another free month! Well, all righty then..