In a world where dozens of films are released across theaters and streaming services every week, it’s impossible to keep up with all of them. This has the unique effect of allowing some good stuff to go unnoticed and the bad stuff to be immediately shuffled into the cultural memory hole. What happens when a film flops so hard that it may as well have never come out?
When it was released in 2017,The Snowmanmade $43.1 million on a $35 million budget. Factoring in marketing, of which the film enjoyed a shocking amount, that’s probably around $27 million in losses. The film attracted withering derisionfrom every critic whosaw it, eventually inspiring full dissections that could double as worthwhile film school courses. Now it’s the #1 movie on Netflix.
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What isThe SnowmanAbout?
The Snowmanis an adaptation of Jo Nesbø’s 2007 Norwegian crime novel of the same name. The book is the seventh in an ongoing series of detective stories starring Harry Hole. Hole has effectively become Norway’sanswer to Sherlock Holmesor Hercule Poirot, though he’s inspired by and named after Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch.The Snowmanwas an attempt, through an ambitious international co-production effort, to create a franchise of Harry Hole movies following the model of the variousAlex Crossfilms. It was an understandable goal, especially in the immediate aftermath of David Fincher’sGirl with the Dragon Tattoo. With a yearly detective franchise in mind, director Tomas Alfredson set out with a seemingly random selection from Nesbø’s catalog.
Harry Hole, whose silly name is pronounced like it’s written even though it shouldn’t be, is an alcoholic detective struggling to keep his life and career together. His life comes to him in distant flashes, many of which make very little sense. Hole has a strained relationship with his ex-girlfriend and her son, but his drinking problem and his dangerous job keep him busy. Luckily, Hole is apparently a great inspector,leading a serial killerto seek him out personally. A series of disappearances, linked with a large snowman as a calling card, lead Hole and his new partner on a wild chase through Oslo. As bodies pile up, only Hole can follow the clues and save the lives of the killer’s latest victims.
What Went Wrong During Production?
The big headline-making disaster is the rushed production schedule. The filming started in the middle of January 2016. Over the next three months, shooting took place in multiple locations. There werealso a few reshootsover the following spring. Unfortunately, limited access to shooting locations and Michael Fassbender’s busy schedule led the production to miss between 10 and 15% of the shots they needed. That’s more than a tenth of the runtime of the film simply unfilmed. That’s the kind of disaster that should end production right away. It’s a cascading disaster that ensures that much of the existing footage had to be abandoned due to ongoing continuity issues. As a result,The Snowmanis an editing disaster that boggles the imagination.
On top of that catastrophe, one of the film’s stars was unable to speak.Beloved icon Val Kilmerwas fresh from his treatment for throat cancer, leaving him with a swollen tongue and a vocal prosthesis. As a result, almost all of his dialogue is dubbed in. There’s a lot of distracting overdubbing across the production. The script might have been good at one point, but the film was edited via a woodchipper, so conversations have a consistently awkward flow. Most of the cast is solid, but they all seem like they’re being given bizarre directions. Rebecca Ferguson, a hugely talented performer, delivers all of her lines in a breathy whisper. Michael Fassbender always seems a bit frustrated to be there. It’s a grim production from every perspective, but some have stumbled into the film with fresh eyes.
Why is it #1 on Netflix?
The Snowmanmiraculously flopped so hard that everyone instantly forgot it ever existed. As a result, when itpopped up on Netflixsix years after its initial release, viewers likely assumed that it was a new original production. The alternative explanation is that a ton of people were waiting with bated breath to check out the “so bad it’s good” icon of 2017. The first explanation is much funnier. Imagine tons of families, folks looking for some good popcorn entertainment on a Friday night, sothey grab a crime thrillerwith a known star in the lead role.The Snowmanis a bona fide hit on Netflix, whether it earned that status or not.
The Snowmanshould be regarded as a legendarily terrible film that arose from a clever idea. It’s a demonstration of how everything can go wrong, even when working with a great cast and crew. It probably won’t bepopular on Netflix forlong, but it’s well worth checking out for those who want to watch something truly mystifying for all the wrong reasons.
