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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wintry skies, loneliness and a little boy's mysterious death, January 21, 2002
How many words for "snow" do you know? In most languages, there is only one ... or maybe a few, but not many different ones. But the Inuit language knows countless words for snow - different expressions based on its consistency, its aggregate state, on whether it's old or freshly fallen, and much, much more. And snow is Smilla Jaspersen's specialty; it's what she studies and what she knows better than anybody and anything. So when her only friend, an Inuit boy living in the same Copenhagen apartment complex as her is found dead on the pavement in front of their house, she knows something must be amiss; he can't have fallen off the roof, as the police quickly conclude: afraid of heights, he would not have climbed to the roof if not driven there in the first place, and he certainly wouldn't have run to the edge ... as his footsteps in the otherwise untouched snow cover on the roof, however, indicate.
Smilla, half Inuit herself and brought to Copenhagen against her will after her Inuit mother's death, is a loner, a rebel against society, hiding her fears and loneliness under a thick coat of armor of unapproachability and trying to be "rough all over." Unable and unwilling to ever lift that coat of armor, she takes refuge in science - her definition of longing are mathematics's negative numbers, the "formalization of the feeling that you're missing something." - Yet, this movie's Smilla is not the Smilla Jaspersen of Peter Hoeg's novel which the movie seeks to adapt ... although Julia Ormond's performance is not exactly coated with sugar, she is a far cry from the book's 37-year old woman who hates her Danish father for tearing her from her Greenlandic roots and open skies, and who hates the confines of the society in which he has made her grow up.
And as the story's protagonist changes in the movie adaption, so does the story line itself - unfortunately, not for the better. Even accepting that it would have been impossible to translate all the novel's subplots and subtleties onto the screen, what begins like a complex, introspective story about loneliness, the loss of home, and the unchecked power and ambition of a group of prestigious scientists, turns into your average thriller in the end - a huge let-down in an otherwise compelling movie.
Nevertheless, Ormond's performance as Bille August's Smilla (even if not Peter Hoeg's) is strong; and so, in all its quietness, is Gabriel Byrne's performance as Smilla's neighbor, the would-be mechanic. Atmospherically, the movie wonderfully projects Smilla's loneliness in the sad, gray skies and wet snow of wintry Copenhagen, as opposed to the crisp blue skies, white ice fields and limitless horizons of Greenland. For these reasons alone, the movie is well worth watching; even if those of us who have read the novel will have to leave aside a good portion of its contents to be able to appreciate the movie on its own merits.
Also recommended:
Smilla's Sense of Snow
Tales of the Night (Harvill Panther)
The Shipping News
Fargo (Special Edition)
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A well-crafted mystery when taken on its own merit . . ., December 22, 1998
By A Customer
When a young Inuit boy mysteriously falls to his death from the roof of an apartment building in Copenhagen, his neighbor (Julia Ormond) sets out to solve the puzzle armed only with the suspicion that his demise was not accidental -- a suspicion arisen from her singular impression of his footprints in the snow. With the help of another neighbor, known only as "the Mechanic" (Gabriel Byrne), Smilla takes on the head of a major mining corporation (Richard Harris) as well as the local authorities in order to put the boy's soul at peace.
If the vehement disdain that its critics have heaped upon it is any indication, then this movie may be a severe disappointment to those who have read the novel -- not too surprising since most movies so based are never as good as the book and vice versa. But whereas films of this nature will usually give viewers far too much information initially, leaving only a story line already surmised to plod resolutely to its conclusion, Smilla metes out the details sparingly. We discover new information only when the characters do and are blissfully kept in the dark about exactly what has happened and why until the very end. Due primarily to a superb story line as well as some noteworthy performances from its principal cast members, the movie grabs our attention from the outset and commands it throughout.
Smilla herself comes across as a complex, intelligent, and resourceful woman although she is a self-confessed loner and perhaps not the most pleasant of people. But by far the most compelling character turns out to be that of the Mechanic. Just as we begin to believe that he is trustworthy, one action after another sends us (and Smilla) back to our initial assumption that this is one ambiguous guy with plenty of secrets to hide himself. Yet we fall for his stuttering innocence over and over again.
Despite a few cheesy lines and some minor inconsistencies, when taken on its own merit "Smilla's Sense of Snow" is a thoroughly enjoyable and well-crafted mystery -- one well-worth watching.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent film, July 28, 2000
To say that this film is a Danish X-File (and trust me, I know 'The X-Files' quite well) is to miss the point altogether. This film, an adaptation of Peter Hoeg's brilliant book, is both a mystery solved by, and a personal journey undertaken by, one remarkable woman: Smilla Jaspersen. Julia Ormond plays Smilla with passion and yet with understatement - for Smilla herself is a mystery, a woman like no other you've met both culturally and in terms of her emotions and life. Bille August's direction, Hans Zimmer's music, and the supporting cast add depth to this very fine movie. I don't know what the reviewers were thinking - maybe that they'd get a shallow film adaptation of one of the many mere 'detective' novels that abound. Hoeg's work is literary, not genre, and the essence of the story is more than Smilla's amateur detective work, it is her reaching peace and reincarnation with her Inuit self killed by her surrender to Danish culture, and much more. Watch this film. It's worth it.
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