First Snow Review
Posted by Chad Webb on 04.14.2007
This forecast looks ugly, dreary, and aggravating.
Guy Pearce: Jimmy
Piper Perabo: Deirdre
William Fichtner: Ed
J.K. Simmons: Vacaro
Shea Whigham: Vincent
Rick Gonzalez: Andy Lopez
Jackie Burrows: Maggie
Adam Scott: Tom Moreland
Written/Directed By: Mark Fergus
Release Date: March 23, 2007
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rated R for language, some violence and sexuality.
The trailer of First Snow, and the beginning of the film itself cleverly disguise it as a psychological thriller, when in reality it is just bland and lifeless. There is no profundity or twisty curves to be found. One question kept popping into my head. If a point is trying to be made, what is it? First Snow has a working brain; it just doesn’t have a clue how to properly utilize it. As a debut effort for Director Mark Fergus, this banality is mentally challenged and immobile.
What if you new you were going to die? How would your life change from then on? That is what Jimmy (Guy Pearce) deals with after speaking with a mysterious fortune teller. One day, when his car breaks down in the New Mexico desert, he pulled off to a rest stop where a bar and a small trailer sat with hardly anyone around. To waste time, he visits a fortune teller named Vacaro (J.K. Simmons), who tells him of money coming his way, predicts the winner of a sports contest, and knows of his girlfriend waiting for him at home. Just then, as the psychic is still analyzing, his face grew frightened, and he experienced some sort of seizure. The man returned Jimmy’s money, and told him to leave. After Jimmy starts to see that this man is not a typical con artist, he returns to that location, and demands that Vacaro reveal all that he knows. He then informs Jimmy that he will be dead sometime after the first snowfall hit. As Jimmy struggles with this seemingly inescapable fate, his paranoia increases, and he drags his girlfriend Deirdre (Piper Perabo) and his business friend Ed (William Fichtner) into the mess with him.
There is one word I dislike using to describe a film because I think casual moviegoers toss it around excessively. That adjective is “boring.” However, it definitely applies here. Boring perfectly explains the bulk of this storyline. This is not complex, intriguing, or insightful. It makes a hearty attempt to convince viewers that it is all of those, but while some will no doubt be fooled, I was waiting for an established message and/or direction.
Note the scenes where Jimmy visits the mother of an old friend, and later that friend’s apartment. His friend went to prison, and is presumed to be free now. Regardless, the audience is supposed to observe one minute detail that is obvious anyways. These scenes unravel as monotonous and feel so long by panning to various meaningless objects such as music group posters, old pictures, and so forth, that the majority has little or no relevance to anything. In the movie Junebug, the director exhibited shots of the neighborhood in which the plot was set, and furthermore displayed all the rooms in the characters’ house. This was important because it made the audience more comfortable with the characters. It gave us a sense of their daily lives. In First Snow this technique acts as filler.
Guy Pearce has long since entered the territory of Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, and Christopher Walken where just about every role they accept is fascinating. Let’s examine Pearce’s resume. He has delivered some brilliant parts in Memento, L.A. Confidential, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Proposition, and some average ones in The Time Machine and Factory Girl, but is normally trustworthy for a splendid performance. As the arrogant Jimmy, his acting is fine, but the character lacks depth and likeability. Hanks had The Ladykillers, Depp had The Libertine, and unfortunately Guy Pearce’s contribution to First Snow will certainly go down as one of his most forgettable performances. Make no mistake, he is an excellent talent, but there is absolutely no reason to care about this neurotic character.
Piper Perabo is not the best and most accomplished actress in the world, but she is surely capable of more lines than she is given here as Deirdre. Most of the time, she kisses Jimmy hello, or goodbye, or simply pouts her eyes in disappointment. Her presence means nothing, and the gentlemen are even teased with a swift, no nudity sex scene. The remaining supporting roles are supplied with the utmost passion by William Fichtner and J.K. Simmons. Simmons should be given more credit for his versatility because he exposes it in tremendous form as Vacaro the fortune teller. Besides the Spiderman franchise, he can be seen wonderfully in Harsh Times and Thank You For Smoking. Likewise, as Jimmy’s cynical business partner Ed, William Fichtner never fails to provide solid entertainment in the numerous films he has been apart of. Hats off to these two for giving 110% to parts that are flat and one-dimensional.
Newcomer Mark Fergus would be wise to stick with screenwriting. He donated aid to the script for Children of Men, and will also be helping out with the Iron Man and John Carter of Mars screenplays. As a rookie director, he demonstrates some ability, but some more education is necessary. The primary credit is awarded to cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards who displays some truly breathtaking shots. For example, as Jimmy is running through his neighborhood, the camera drifts backwards to an amazing glimpse of a sunset. Additionally, the scene where Jimmy opens the door to a snow covered parking lot is mesmerizing. Too bad, the story did not supplement his commendable job.
First Snow struck me as a wannabe neo-noir thriller with no purpose, and so many aspects just appeared to be tacked on to a tale with no clear destination. The confrontations with the Hispanic associate, the flash forwards, the flash backs, and the annoying Ray Liotta like voice of Jimmy’s delinquent pal Vincent all basically amounted to nothing. Without spoiling too much, the maddening open ending evidently underwent some alterations. The end result is fuzzy, overly moody, and absurdly executed. Those who adore Guy Pearce will probably find the best in this offering, and I wanted to enjoy this, but in good conscience I can’t give a recommendation. It’s as reliable as any regular fraudulent palm reading.
The 411: Why would anyone want to watch this more than once? Nothing comes of anything, and it just plain dull in almost every way. The performances by Guy Pearce, William Fichtner, and J.K. Simmons are admirable, but the story seems extended for no reason. Is this supposed to show us how one would act if they knew their future? All of us have thought of this at some point, and this idea is ok, but it could have been compelling, and it wasn’t. Maybe some of you will appreciate the minor ambitiousness of this, but you will likely not spend a great deal of time thinking about it, or discussing it after it is finished.
