Watch Smilla's Sense of Snow For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Good storyline that goes far and a heroine that is vulnerable and strong at the same time. Lots of courage to forge forward without being well informed. Very female James Bond, with a trail of death, and a precursor to the Girl with the dragon tatoo serie.

I have watched this movie without having read the book, and I expected something different, more exploring of the Inuit people of Greenland and their story. All of this is only casually spoken of in the movie. It's in the story and in Smilla's words (by the way, this British Smilla isn't really believable as a half Inuit woman). At the end the movie *is* convincing. Maybe a little less culturally involved compared to what I was expecting. It's a nice European action movie with a glimpse of Greenland and her sad story. The ending is often criticized as scarcely believable, but it's OK. I have seen worse, and so have you if you have ever seen any Hollywood action blockbuster. Julia Ormond is good even if I wouldn't believe she has Greenlandic native blood. Richard Harris is perfect as the bad guy.

From what must be a fascinating, intriguing novel from Peter Hoeg came this potential packed thriller from the under-achieving director of "Les Miserables", Bille August. "Smilla's Feeling for Snow" starts off as a most interesting riddler about the suspicious death of a young boy that wreaks of a cover-up. An intuitive neighbour, Smilla, starts snooping around looking for clues to the mystery's solution.After painstakingly laying out the juicy premise, director August does nothing with the rest of the film, aside from tell the story, plain and simple. This same error ruined his version of "Les Mis" as well. His characters remain under-developed, and the plot is left to its own devices.Julia Ormond does reasonably well with her part and her accent. Gabriel Byrne gets to do very little, and his character remains an enigma throughout the film. The support cast don't get much of a go either. Some nice cinematography and a good music score save some face.Sunday, January 17, 1999 - Video

This mystery picture begins on a crashing-meteor opening and concerns about Smilla(Julia Ormond), a lonely scientist resident in Copenhagen. The grumpy Smilla is an half-America and half-Inuit with many problems of adaptation and her father(Robert Loggia) is a rich financier. When she returns home discovers the body of six-years-old friend named Isaiah(Miano) nearly her apartment building. Smilla believes the kid was killed and starts investigating , it leads to the Greenland mining company that is owner the magnate Tork(Richard Harris). Meanwhile she falls in love with her suspicious neighbor(Gabriel Byrne).The picture based on Peter Hoeg's best seller novel packs suspense,thrills,intrigue, tension and interesting character study. The story is well developed though its final fail to sustain the outcome and is a little bit crappy. Suspenseful and mysterious musical score by Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams. Exceptional secondary casting mostly formed by British actors such as Jim Broadbent,Vanessa Redgrave,Bob Peck, Tom Wilkinson, among them. Evocative and cold cinematography is consistently created by Jorgen Persson, Billie August's usual cameraman.Location photography is particularly breathtaking with impressive images like a large icebreaker ship, snowy outdoors and giant floes thawing, among others. This partially successful first attempt at the thriller and tense mystery is efficiently directed by August. Billie is the Danish's best director, an expert on intelligent dramas as ¨Pelle the conqueror¨which took the best foreign-language film Oscar , ¨Twist and shout¨,¨The best intentions¨, ¨House of spirits¨, and ¨Les Miserables¨. Rating : Well worth seeing, better than average.