Set in the middle of who-the-hell-knows-where Germany, Tomasz Thomson’s dark and dry crime comedy Snowman’s Land follows the life of Walter (Jürgen Rißmann), a hitman who recently screwed up his latest job. At the request of his angry boss, Walter takes some time off and eventually replaces his hitman friend on a job out in the wilderness for a man named Berger (Reiner Schöne), whom he thought was dead. On the way up, he encounters an old eccentric buddy of his, Mickey (Thomas Wodianka), who is headed to the same place. Together they arrive at Berger’s mansion awaiting his arrival while his wife, Sibylle (Eva-Katrin Hermann), sets the ground rules for their stay. One night, while Mickey is both high and drunk, he has himself a freak accident that’s about to turn both his and Walter’s lives upside down. What was supposed to be a simple security job of protecting the mansion from mountain dwelling troublemakers has now turned into an entertaining web of deception, vengeance and, you guessed it, violence.
The characters in the movie are entertaining. Walter is a simple minded man who just wants to do his job. Mickey is a thrill seeking, dumb as nails guy that only wants to live in the moment and have a good time. Sibylle is Berger’s orgy loving, drug dealing wife who he loves more than anything else in the world. Berger is the mob boss you never, ever want to mess with and he’s the kind of guy that’s both seen and done everything, in the violent sense of course. His henchman, Kazik (Waléra Kanischtscheff), is a psycho muscleman who talks to his dead daughter and enjoys cooking. When all of these personalities clash you know it’s only a matter of time before the pot starts boiling and it begins to overflow with trouble.
Though the movie has its share of humor, not everything is laugh out loud or even giggly funny, but internally you’ll find yourself smiling as you pick up on the little details. One thing that got me going and questioning was that Walter never took off his winter coat no matter what situation he was in. Maybe it meant that he refused to adapt and adjust to his situation by remaining inside himself, refusing to be distracted by the wealth surrounding him so as not to sacrifice his basic principles, or maybe it was simply a comfort thing. One can only guess, but it’s entertaining to both watch and think about.
Snowman’s Land is a dark and beautiful film. Thomson uses the wintery environment to his advantage, making the snowy and mountainous landscape a character that’s just as important as our leads. Through the use of beautiful cinematography of this destitute, Thomson paints an isolated portrait that amplifies the bleak and miserable situation that our leads find themselves in, providing no escape route fortheir mistakes.
I can’t remember who said it but there’s a quote in the movie, “the world belongs to the courageous” and it couldn’t be truer with Snowman’s Land. Without spoiling the film, there will be moments where four individuals step up at different times resulting in hilarious situations that could be detrimental to the lives of the others. Let’s just say it involves a dead body of a key character showing up randomly outside the mansio
n, another walking around like a military pimp, and the third finding himself with a shotgun to the head because, you know, a shotgun to the head is always funny.
The first movie everyone will likely compare this to is The Cohen Brothers’ Fargo, which is a fair comparison. Both are dark and semi-comedic films about murder, but that’s as far as my comparison can go. I can barely remember Fargo and wasn’t that fond of it the first time I saw it so forgive me for stopping there. But like Fargo, Snowman’s Land feels like one of those films that’s an acquired taste. Much of this is a result of its very long and drawn out build up to the first really important event in the film, the freak accident that initiates all the trouble. I wasn’t a big fan of the first half of this movie because it felt too long, slow and drawn out. I found myself getting impatient since you knew something had to go wrong, it was only a matter of when but that “when” point took too long to get too.
The beauty about Snowman’s Land is that, from a dark comedy standpoint, it both starts and ends strong, the end is especially clever. There were times in the middle where it dragged but once we got into the second and third act that’s when it became much more entertaining and all of the comedic nuances shined right on through. With the addition of an interesting score full of songs reminiscent of a Hawaiian vacation to drive the irony, Snowman’s Land ends up being a decent German black comedy that genre and art house fans should take a look at.
Rating: A hitman film for Fargo fans (6/10)
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