As a caveat for those not fans of crime based entertainment, both of these fall into that basket but that is pretty much where the similarities end except with a small issue I have with one that is a massive issue in the other.
So first to Mindhunter (though I did see The Snowman a few days earlier) for which unfortunately the trailer doesn't seem to be on youtube, you may have to search on your Netflix to watch it. Here is the poster for the show:
Plot summary as the trailer isn't forthcoming. Based on the true crime work, Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E Douglas (a former member of that unit) and Mark Olshaker, Mindhunter opens in the late 1970s introducing Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) a young (he is revealed to be 29) but skilled FBI hostage negotiator. After a failed negotiation results in the death of the hostage taker, Ford is moved to working at Quantico training new recruits in negotiation skills. Ford finds the new job dull and inspired in part by a sociological grad student he meets in a bar (Debbie played by Hannah Gross), with his boss' approval, Ford starts taking some psychology and sociology courses to build his skill identifying criminals and starts to question the FBI's classifications of why crimes occur. As Ford teaches at Quantico, he walks past other lectures being given on Charles Mason and the Son of Sam, and he starts to think that the FBI's previous methods will not work on individuals like these. Ford's restlessness ultimately results in his being moved from teaching at Quantico to work with Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) on a road school that is designed to teach FBI skills to local law enforcement and as they travel they often help local police with difficult cases. In this road school capacity, Ford sees the opportunity to start to meet with and study the new form of killers that were everywhere in the late 1960 and 70s in America. He initially plans to try and meet Charles Mason but on the advice of local cops that Mason is difficult to visit in prison, Ford meets instead with Edmund Kemper aka the Co-Ed Killer. As the episodes unfold, Ford and soon also Tench meet with Kemper and other killers who they initially term sequence killers. In analysing the psychology of these killers, they ask for the assistance of psychologist, Dr Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) who is intrigued by the research potential of why these killers committed their crimes.
Now quite a few people have commented that this show is a little slow initially but I think that in part is being driven by people who are familiar with the cases it discusses. Though I also fall in the familiar with these cases basket, I didn't find it too slow and I think those not familiar with the cases need the build. The show does take a few episodes to build up to full steam but the wait is worth it. As I mentioned in my last post, the show was in part directed by David Fincher who is no stranger to the crime genre even in cases where the build is slow- I love Fincher's work and if I want a solid crime film, he would be one of the first directors I looked to- and he does very well with setting the mood in the opening episodes and then returning to close out the series. The directors I'm less familiar with do a great job of expanding the mood Fincher has set, especially Asif Kapadia who picks up from Fincher in episode three which is also when the pace of the show builds. The script is for the most part solid and when it does lag, the actors pull it across the line. Again as mentioned in my last post I've long been a fan of Jonathan Groff and I was really unsure of how he would travel here as he is usually in much lighter material (I mean the man has been nominated for two Tonys for performances in musicals after all, and he was in Frozen and Glee, and he has a puppy like adorable quality to him that often does not work in crime drama) and the weight of show does fall predominantly on his shoulders as though Tench and Carr get expanded as the series goes on, Ford is really the main character. My fears of Groff's ability to play into this darker side were quickly quashed as he shines as the social awkward yet highly passionate Ford, and nails the line between fascination with the minds of killers and going a little too far in his enthusiasm for this. McCallany and Torv I am less familiar with- I know I've seen him in things in the past but I cannot recall exactly what and I think the last time I saw Torv in something was a Bell Shakespeare production over a decade ago (no I've not seen Fringe). Both of them also acquit themselves really well- McCallany hitting the right beat on the cynical older detective without making him a cliche and Torv in mastering the juggle of portraying the kind of strong woman who TV audiences don't tend to warm to (though this needs to change) with making Carr someone you sympathise with. The character development of the three main characters instead just focusing on crime is outstandingly done. I also would single out Cameron Britton for his work. All of the actors playing the killers that Ford and Tench interview do really well especially as these are real people after all and some of them are now dead, but Britton is the only one in multiple episodes and his portrayal of Edmund Kemper is chillingly brilliant. As an aside, being set in 1977 also means that the music throughout the series is amazing.
Something I found interesting about the show was that the characters of Ford, Tench, and Carr are fictionalised versions of the real people who worked in the early stages of the Behavioural Science unit at the FBI. Ford is based on John E Douglas who wrote the book on which the show is based and also has been the basis of many fictional detectives in the past, Tench is based on Robert K Ressler another FBI agent in the unit who worked with Douglas, and Carr is based on Dr Ann Wolbert Burgess who worked with Douglas on works he published on serial killers. The reason it is interesting is that none of the killers are altered nor are their crimes, and the show is largely careful to avoid anachronisms- you may notice I limited my use of the term "serial killer" though that is what Edmund Kemper and some others featured in the series were, and that is because the series doesn't use it until quite late as the term was not coined until the late 1970s rumour has it by Robert K Ressler (in the show it is coined late in the series by Tench to replace the clunkier sequence murderer or killer and as a means to differentiate killers like Edmund Kemper from killers like Richard Speck who was a spree killer). I'm not sure why they opted to go down this route with the main characters, likely to enable them to take liberties with the characters, but I felt it was worth commenting on. I was also entertained that they named the main character after not one but two cars.
Anyhow that was Mindhunter, it is really good but I do have to call it out on the one thing that stops it being up with Handmaid's Tale, Big Little Lies, and Dear White People as one of my top shows of 2017, and that is the character of Debbie. Hannah Gross does work hard with the material she is given but she is the only character who appears in all episodes who seems half thought out and were it not for Wendy Carr showing up about three episodes in, I would have questioned the treatment of women based on this character. Where Carr is a total boss who is clearly more intelligent and to a degree more respected than her male colleagues, Debbie whose sociological study could make her an interesting partner for Ford is pretty much a cipher. In the later episodes the show does try a little to address this by having her call Ford out on his constantly work talk but it is too late after over half a season of her acting as an exposition tool for the audience. Normally I would go harsher on use of women as ciphers but as I said, there is a another strong female character front and centre, the character in question is in most episodes a side line character at most, and though late in the day, the show does seem to notice the issue.
I think this might be a show to watch for years to come- based on an Easter egg for true crime nuts which the internet is all about spoiling at the minute (the spoiler is even on Wikipedia for goodness sake), I will put it as a footnote so you can stop before you get there if you don't want to know- so you should get on the band wagon soon*. I will include a warning that there are descriptions of very violent crimes (for example, it doesn't shy away from description of Kemper's crimes which were revolting to say the least) and photographs of some of these and some fictional crimes are re/created, so this isn't one for those who aren't otherwise fans of the crime/true crime genres. Personally I'm suddenly keen to read the book on which it is based.
So that is Mindhunter and as I said up top that one thing I was speaking about was good and one was not so, you can already guess where I might be headed with The Snowman.
Firstly the trailer as Youtube has this one...
Based on the best selling novel by Norwegian author, Jo Nesbø, The Snowman focuses on a series of disappearances of women in Oslo during the winter. The film opens not on the disappearances but on a single woman living alone with her son in a remote house. A man, apparently from his dress a police officer, appears at house and gives the boy a lesson in Norwegian history which is punctuated by him slapping the boy's mother whenever an incorrect answer is given. The boy flees from the house and builds a snowman. When he returns, he finds the police officer in bed with his mother and overhears her mentioning that the police officer is his father. Noticing the boy listening the police officer flees in his car and the boy and his mother follow him ending with the mother committing suicide by driving into a icy lake. Based on the clothing this is a flashback and the film then moves to Olso and the present day (or one assumes if the opening sequence was a flashback). Detective Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) is an alcoholic who often passes out from drink in parks, though he does still hold his role with the police department and based on comments by other characters, he appears to have once been a highly respected and competent investigator. Outside of work, Hole seeks to help ex-girlfriend, Rakel (Charlotte Gainsbourg), with her teenage son despite the fact that she has a new partner and he is not the boy's father. One day at work, he encounters keen young detective Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson) who has recently transferred from Bergen and she tries to get him interested in the mysterious disappearances of women on snowy nights. Hole also receives mysterious letters in child like hand that are signed with a drawing a snowman. The film also flashes back to nine year earlier in Bergen (this flashback does merit text on the screen to explain it) when a similarly alcoholic detective, Gert Rafto (Val Kilmer), was investigating the disappearance of a wealthy woman and the suspicion was falling on industry magnate Arve Støp (J. K. Simmons) (who nine years later is comfortably holding a prominent position in Olso and helping with the campaign for a major sporting event in the city).
Now you are going to have to excuse me on this one because I'm almost certainly going to stick spoilers in here but as my recommendation is that you not see it, maybe you can pardon me just this once. If you have read my posts in the past, you know that my approach to crime fiction is be unpredictable or be well written or I'll have none of you. Rare is the work of crime fiction where I don't pick the killer (For example, I picked the first season of Broadchurch a few episodes in which many take as the yardstick for unpredictable) so the writing needs to be amazing to keep me interested. This one I picked early on and the writing did not help at all nor did anything else especially as I have not read the book. I know The Snowman isn't the first book in the series that feature Harry Hole which seems an odd choice as it seems to rely on past exploits that aren't portrayed to make me want to side with the character at all.
First to get the silliness out of the way, does Harry Hole sound different with a Norwegian accent because with an English/American/Australian one it sounds like a poor conceived far too crass drag name. I can just imagine her fellow drag queens talking Harry Hole aside and explaining that puns made funny names but this was a little on the nose.
Anyhow inappropriate jokes aside, back to the film. If the summary above sounds choppy that is because the film is. I know that the film had a switch of directors and didn't film all of its scenes but even so I would have thought that the editing could have been cleaner. The film jumps without transition between the present day to the random nine year earlier scenes in Bergen, the link to which takes a LONG time to pay off (I suspected correctly what the link was aside from the disappearance of women but due to the editing I did struggle initially). They could have clearly indicated that the initial scenes were in the past. As I said the clothes suggested that but you couldn't be certain and so might have really struggled to determine this and to see it as the too obvious signposting that it was if you knew it was the past.
The cast is full of actors I normally love. I would normally watch Michael Fassbender in anything, and I have plenty of time for Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones (who plays the senior detective in the Bergen flashbacks), Chloe Sevigny (she plays a victim and the victim's twin sister), and James D'Arcy (he plays another victim's husband), and that is before you get to J. K. Simmons who I think is amazing in most anything even if he does still carry terrifying associations from his character in Oz (over a decade has passed but he still scares me a little even when he is in comedies). This said there are so many issues with the acting that it makes me deeply worried for this cast. Firstly one of my pet peeves is mixed accents. If you don't know what I mean by this, I mean when a film is set in specific place and every character is from that place but every one has a different accent. Simmons seems to attempt a Norwegian accent and a few of the supporting actors, in particular Jonas Karlson who plays Mathias (the new partner of Hole's ex-girlfriend), are Swedish (not that this is Norwegian but it is closer than the others) but everyone else is all over the shop- posher English accents from Fassbender (who at least doesn't use his actual Irish accent and add another one to the mix), Ferguson, and D'Arcy, slightly less posh English from Jones, slightly French from Gainsbourg, American from Sevigny, and mumbled American with a side of what the hell from Kilmer. The bulk of the performance seem lacking direction and almost bored- this is particularly the case with Fassbender, Ferguson, and Gainsbourg. The chemistry between Fassbender and Gainsbourg is non existent and their one love scene very mechanical. Jones, Sevigny, and D'Arcy are highly unused only appearing a small number of scenes, particular Sevigny considering she is not European or English, and is a big enough name to normally warrant more screen time. Simmons seems to try the hardest of the cast but even he appears bored in some of his scenes. Kilmer is alone in not ringing in it, that said I have no idea what he was doing as his performance is one of the strangest I've seen in many years as if he figured that as he was playing drunk the whole time, he could do whatever he wanted.
The script appears dumbed down to make sure a small child could understand it (the film is at times a bit bloody, please don't take your five year old). Fassbender and Ferguson as the leads have to deliver some terrible clunkers, and the every scene where Fassbender or Kilmer is drunk seems underwritten as if "act drunk" was just scribbled on the page and nothing else. The main dumbing down occurs around medical terminology with D'Arcy's character needing to spell out what he meant by sterile for some reason and Karlson's character being described as a plastic surgeon initially (sure that is fine) but then later been shown to be doing work with hormones (which is a plot hole and a half on its own because that career transition between specialities would take years and a lot of training not be a sudden whim as it appears here) which is kept super vague. Everyone has watched medical shows nowadays, you can be specific, and if they don't get it there is always google after they get home from the film. There are things set up as prominent set pieces, for example the new police recording system, that never pay off. There was also issues with the plot as a whole. Drunken slightly older male detective (granted Fassbender is not that old) with many past glories and a failed relationship who still loves his ex paired with young bright eyed, often female, keen bean new recruit...I think I've seen that before, only about a thousand or so times. Killer targeting women who have had affairs as vengeance on a single mother who he feels abandoned him...also a very familiar trope. Everyone has missing parents on the backdrop of the killer's motive is also something that has become familiar in recent years. Some originality of plot would have been nice even if it was just to strengthen the script.
Finally the place where I said this was similar to Mindhunter but worse. The worst treatment in this film is reserved for its female main characters. Gainsbourg comes off the easiest of the two as it appears that they have just written her as generic love interest with a few complications and she basically has to go between that and sudden screaming at the end of the film when she is targeted by the killer (yes I did warned there would be spoilers). She is one of the film's most underwritten characters but better that than the fate reserved for, only slightly less underwritten, character played by Rebecca Ferguson. Much like the character of Debbie in Mindhunter, we have another cipher on our hands and this time no-one seems to notice or care! Ferguson's character is described in synopses of the film online as a "brilliant new recruit" but all she does in the bulk of her scenes is parrot Fassbender's character or wait for him to do the bulk of the investigating. On the few occasions where Ferguson's character takes initiative, what would have been seen as foolish but brilliant from a male character is seen as deeply stupid. Ultimately (spoilers) her taking initiative results in her death or serious injury- near the end of the film, she loses a hand and is left in a freezing car in the snow BUT as we obviously don't care what happens to the women, the film opts for a massive plot hole around whether she is alive or dead. For a film about violence towards women, it does a great job of making sure to also undermine them with the plot, script, and character development.
Anyhow not sure The Snowman will be the worst film I see in 2017 but it will be up there. I did check the plot of the book online and it seems that clearly a lot of the plot was cut but that said unfortunately I don't know that the remaining plot would have added much.
Also stop now to avoid Mindhunter spoiler...
*Mindhunter spoiler... The mysterious character who appears at the beginning of nearly every episode and was identified by the show as AT&T employee is almost certainly Dennis Rader or the BTK Killer. In addition the case the police discuss with Ford and Tench in the first episode which isn't solved closely resembles a BTK victim. John E Douglas worked on the BTK case and wrote about it. The reason this indicates that the show might be around for a while is that the BTK Killer was active for a LONG time and was only caught in 2005 so nearly 30 years after 1977 when the show is set. I doubt that means close to 30 seasons but I would anticipate that whenever the final season occurs, it will feature that investigation and likely a time jump and aging makeup for Groff.
No comments:
Post a Comment