The Literate Kitty

"Movie Monday"... “ If you’re gonna butcher something, you might as well butcher the  $h*t out of it, ” must’ve been director Tomas Alfredson’s mantra during the making of “The Snowman” … because there is No. Other. Way. to explain how a project with this much potential— based on a Scandi-noir bestseller! with legit star power! Scorcese! —could’ve gone so tragically wrong. Seriously, this adaptation of Jo Nesbø’s thriller goes wrong, right out of the gate. In the first scene, a boy calls another character “Jonas” (with a hard “j”, like saying the word “joy”). What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, nothing… if this film were set somewhere in America (which it isn’t), or if Jonas and the boy in question were Americans (which they aren’t). No, “The Snowman” takes place in Norway, with almost-entirely Norwegian characters (including these two), meaning “Jonas” would’ve rolled off the boy’s tongue with a “y” sound (as in the word “yo-yo”). An off-putting directorial choi...