Smilla's Sense of Snow

Saw Smilla's Sense of Snow (thanks, Basil!) It was an unusual sort of mystery. The film starts out with an Inuit spear-fisher being killed by a comet. The comet kicks off an avalanche of white snow which consumes and obliterates the Inuit man. We then jump to the protagonist, an Inuit snow researcher, discovering that a young boy who lived in her apartment building has died, apparently accidentally. Since this is a mystery and all, things are not as they seem and she investigates, eventually uncovering and solving a complex mystery.

The film goes to some strange places. The motive of the Bad Guys is a little strange. It's a high-concept idea that falls into an otherwise fairly grounded film. There's an extended sequence on a boat which I loved even as it was kind of a-tonal. I really liked the industrial look of the boat however; the sodium lights and rocking piers, the icy water.

This is also a really chilly film. The film is set in Greenland in the winter. Everything outdoors is caked with snow. The characters are all fairly high-class folks, so even their homes have a spare, minimalist quality. There's also lots of giant windows letting in chilly light and the protagonist wears thick knitted turtlenecks under polar-fleece coats. She is also cold in an emotional sense, always hostilely aggressive, furiously rebuffing any kindness. The opening sequence seems to suggest that ice and snow are hostile forces, destroying her heritage, but she studies snow, loves it, seemingly lives it. Snow and ice are potent symbols which I can't quite decipher. It's very evocative however.

This was an interesting film. It sort of falls apart in the end which is a pity because it has a lot else going for it. I loved the chilliness of the film, of the characters, of the plot. I liked the tough protagonist and her unreasoning quest to uncover the mystery. Once we get aboard the boat, things get a little half-baked, but I greatly enjoyed it up until then.