UK Mall 1 - Smilla's Feeling for Snow [1997]

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Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Starring: Julia Ormond, Ona Fletcher, Agga Olsen, Patrick Field, Matthew Marsh
Directed By: Bille August

Average Customer Rating:

Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 5024165814086
Format: Closed-captioned
Label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: 1999-04-12
Running Time: 116
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1997-02-28

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Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow Captives [1995] (REGION 1) (NTSC) The Lives Of Others [2007] Diva [1981] Hidden (cache) [2005]

Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Languages and subtitles availables
Comment: SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW (1997)
directed by Bille August

(zone 1)

Languages: ENGLISH 5.1 surround - ENGLISH dolby surround - FRENCH dolby surround
Subtitles: ENGLISH - FRENCH - SPANISH

Customer Rating:

Summary: An intriguing movie with a first-rate performance by Ormond
Comment: Even though the story falls off a little towards the end, I like Smilla's Sense of Snow a lot. It has a cold, strange setting in Greenland and Copenhagen, a strong, fierce, independent heroine in Smilla Jasperson, a well-played second lead in Gabriel Byrne, and a story that, I think, is engrossing.

Smilla is woman who keeps to herself, trusts no one, and knows everything there is to know about the properties of snow. She's the daughter of an Inuit Greenlander and a Danish father. Her mother is dead; she's not close to her father; she's alienated from comfortable Danish society, but probably could never do well in Inuit Greenland. One day she comes home to her apartment in Copenhagen and finds that a young Inuit boy who lived in the building had fallen to his death. The police tell her that he had been playing on the roof and had accidently fallen. Smilla is instantly suspicious because she knew the eight-year-old was frightened of heights. Later, her reading of his prints in the snow convince her that he was running from something. Then she learns that there were puncture marks on his body. This sets up the story that involves an obsessive and ruthless scientist, a powerful company, a coverup and a huge scientific secret in Greenland.

One thing really makes this movie work for me, and that is Ormond's performance as Smilla. Ormond is a beautiful woman, but she's also a good actress. She nails the part as a person with many grievances and no particular reason to get close to anyone. She seldom smiles. Yet she does get close to the boy. Their gradual warming relationship, shown in flashback, is realistic and touching. Her relationship to the character played by Byrne is also intriguing. He lives in the same apartment house and for some time it's unclear what his role is. While Byrne's character is deeper than we think, in a test of wills Smilla is just as strong or stronger than he is. It's a nice concept.

The movie also features one of the most gripping opening sequences I've seen. In a vast, sunlit, silent ice field a single Inuit hunter holding a spear is standing motionless by an air hole waiting for a seal. His dogs are nearby. You see a streak of light descend in the far distance, hear a rumble, the dogs get restless. The hunter sees far away a great wave of snow and debris. He harnesses the dogs and takes off, trying to out race the gradually nearing line of disturbance that's moving toward him. The race is desperate and he doesn't make it.

But then there's the ending to deal with. It's not really a bad ending. It involves Smilla stowing away on a ship headed to Greenland, and then learning a sort of science fiction answer to the mystery. For me, it's always a bit of a letdown because the first three-quarters of the movie are so good. It doesn't keep me from watching the movie every year or so.

The other roles are played by very good actors, including Richard Harris, Tom Wilkinson, Bob Peck, Vanessa Redgrave and Jim Broadbent.

The DVD transfer is very good. And if you want to read an outstanding book as well as watch a good movie, pick up a copy of Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Chilling Murder Mystery in Denmark & Greenland
Comment: Julia Ormand plays the beautiful sculptured ice princess Smilla who grew up in Greenland but moved with her family to Denmark. She is now an adult who has a sixth sense about events and people. She is walking home from her job when an ambulance drives by, she stops where a crowd has gathered. She sees the body of a child lying in the snow. She knows the little boy. He and his mother, both from Greenland, lived in her apartment complex. The official verdict is ... Esai was playing on the roof and he accidentally fell to his death. Smilla does not believe it. She visits the coroner's office (wondering why an autopsy was required *if* indeed it was an accident). She is told "it is routine." She digs further, as she notes that Esai's steps on the roof are in a straight-line which indicates to her, he was not playing. Children at play run about in different directions. Her father is a local doctor, she quizzes him and ends up with more questions than answers.

A man living in her apartment, who also misses Esai, tries to comfort Smilla. Smilla resists. She later seeks comfort in his arms and they become lovers ... Smilla is given a gift from Esai's mother, it is a box containing a collection of precious belongings, one of which is a tape-recording. Smilla can not make out the words on the tape but takes it to an expert ... A blind man who worked on excavations in Greenland. He interprets the words for Smilla which indicates there was some cover-up by the mining company that had hired Esai's father to work in Greenland. He had died in a mining accident in 1993 but some mysterious event also occurred then which involved Esai.

When Smilla goes to pick up the tape, she discovers the scientist murdered. The door to his ship is locked shut. There is a huge explosion and fire ... Smilla narrowly escapes with her life. She goes to hide out at her father's home. She knows the mining company executive is somehow involved in covering up some mysterious event which occured in Greenland and that Esai was involved ...

Smilla sees an argument ensue between a white haired gentleman and Esai's mother at his funeral. It turns out he is the top executive of the mining company for which Esai's father worked. Smilla is certain the mining company is trying to silence her from searching further into Esai's death and his father's mining accident (which she suspects was not an accident at all). Smilla confides in her boyfriend who has a friend associated with a shipping company that recruits for excavavations to Greenland. Smilla manages to be hired as the laundress on board one of the largest excavation ships to Greenland ...

There are many twists and turns to this amazing story before the mysterious cover up by the mining company is solved. Smilla accomplishes her goals with the help of the captain's son, who makes suggestive overtures toward her but who ends up becoming her ally in the quest to solve the death of an innocent young boy. The dangerous game of pursuing the mining company executive and uncovering the truth becomes more intense and harrowing ... Smilla and her boyfriend triumph in the end, with the unwitting help of the Captain of the excavation ship. The spell-binding scenery in Greenland is astonishing. This is the first film ever to be made in the forbidding climate of the most Northern country in the world. This film will appeal to murder mystery fans who love a good chase and enjoy chasing clues that become more challenging and mysterious as time goes on but which come to a chilling and satisfying conclusion.
Erika Borsos (pepper flower)

Customer Rating:

Summary: Book fantastic, film totally rubbish
Comment: I rate the book that this film was based on as one of my favourite books. The characters have real depth and real motivations.
I bought the film fully expecting it to ruin the novel and sure enough it did.
With characters boiled down until they resemble nothing so much as sludge at the bottom of the pan, the film dispenses with huge sections of the story, not only in back story as you might expect, but also large sections of action and explanation.
Smilla is boiled down to nothing more than sulky. The Mechanic is reduced to your stereotypical "man with a past" (although this is never explained), and Tork rants and raves like a James Bond villain, motivated only by greed for more money. Other characters, pivotal to the story, are totally miscast and sometimes ignored altogether.
If I was Peter Hoeg I would be mightilly annoyed at the hatchet job done to his book.
If you loved the book like I did, leave this film well alone.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Liked it so much I tried to buy it
Comment: Smilla is a native Greenlander living in Copenhagen. Her Mother was an Inuit who had taught little Smilla to hunt on the ice. Her father, an American, brought her to Denmark when her mother died. She resented the change, missed the ice and the way of life of her mother's people. The two things she loves are the vast, open ice fields and mathematics. To the people around her she is prickly and distant. One small boy did succeed in 'taming' her - making her his friend. Then the boy dies. It looks like an accident but Smilla can read his footprints in the snow because she knew the boy and she understands the snow. Whatever the obstacles, she is determined to find out what really happened to her friend.

It's a murder mystery with a small dollop of sci-fi thrown in. There are a few holes in the plot and I found the sci-fi element detracted slightly from the overall believability of the story. The acting is very good though, and I found Smilla's character in particular, realistic and interesting. I've watched the film twice on television and enjoyed it enough to want to buy the DVD. Unfortunately Amazon cannot supply a copy that will play on my region 2 DVD player. I'll have to read the book instead and hope that the DVD will become available in the future.