Review of First Snow (2006) by Troy C — 17 Mar 2008

FIRST SNOW (2007).

Directed by MarK Fergus.

Starring Guy Pearce, Piper Perabo, William Fichtner«One thing is certain... you will be safe until the first snow.»Part thriller, part psychological drama, but never both at the same time, First Snow, from two of the writers of Children of Men, is ultimately a minor disappointment.It all begins with Jimmy Starks, a smooth-talking salemanm who's car stalls in the middle of nowhere. To kill time he eats a bad steak and then goes to a fortune teller. The man tells hims about a few things that will all come to be true, but he also saw his death, he has until the first snow, then its all over.First Snow is another one of those films about fate. This one tries to explore to many facets of that theme, it ends up going nowhere. Of course we get the expected and usual insights. Starks wants to fight it at first but at one point he embrasses it, which changes him, that could have been a good twist, his «death» would have only meant a rebirth as someone better, maybe thats what the film does in some metaphorical ways, or maybe he really just dies, I dont know. The philosophy is shallow, the psychology is decent but it never gets to the next level.The acting and the directing are fairly good, most of the scenes work and I dont think there were any laughable moments, its actually a quality small production but the screenplay never delivers and the ending never pays off.First Snow isnt a bad film, it kills time pretty well and the ideas are fine, but its only an average movie with greater promises.