First Snow: Quietly Chilling
"I chose this road. A man makes his destiny, right? Nothing makes the gods laugh harder." This voice-over begins First Snow, as a haggard Guy Pearce smokes a cigarette and drives through a light snowstorm.
The haunting scene gives the impression that something terrible is about to happen, yet the uneasiness abruptly shifts when there is a time jump to several months earlier: A much surer Pearce drives the same car in broad daylight, nothing scary about it. We won't see that first Pearce again until the end of the film, when the scene will be heavy with meaning.
Pearce is cocky salesman Jimmy Starks, a clever guy who is used to playing everyone in his life and coming out the winner. When his car breaks down in a deserted area, he visits a fortuneteller (J.K. Simmons) who becomes frightened by the future he sees. The psychic says he sees "no more tomorrows" for Jimmy, though he is safe until "the first snow." The suspense is only starting to build at that point, though, so read more
Annoyed, Jimmy dismisses the psychic's predictions until other aspects of the reading come true. A dangerous former friend (Shea Whigham) returns to town with a vendetta against Jimmy, causing him to become increasingly paranoid about his destiny. At that point, Jimmy and his sanity start a race against time — and the weather.
First Snow is probably too quiet and slow for most mainstream audiences, and was even too slow at times for my own patience. But by the end I appreciated the pacing and couldn't think of one extraneous scene. As far as psychological thrillers go, the story unfolds perfectly, with first-time director Mark Fergus employing plenty of sharp edits, an unsteady camera and extreme close-ups of Pearce's suspicious eyes. Despite its grungy modern setting, the film has the feel of a classic thriller, and could have easily been shot in black and white. While the movie in its entirety is well-done, the best part of the entire film is the last minute or so, which is as soft and cold as that first snowfall of winter.
Photos courtesy of Yari Film Group
