Smilla's Sense of Snow
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: February 28, 1997 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
8
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Here is a movie so absorbing, so atmospheric, so suspenseful and so dumb, that it proves my point: The subject matter doesn't matter in a movie nearly as much as mood, tone and style. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It is involving and entertaining, and features an intriguing, independent heroine. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
This story has now been gracefully adapted by Bille August into a sleek, good-looking film that captures the book's peculiar fascination. Read full review
70
VarietyDavid Stratton
An exceedingly sleek and handsome thriller, this ambitious European co-production, like the novel on which it's quite faithfully based, starts intriguingly but fails to stay the distance. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Regresses into a lame action-thriller. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Though enlivened by occasional touches, "Smilla's" is like the food at Taco Bell: exotic only to someone who hasn't experienced the real thing. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
By the end Smilla has become a formulaic action hero--equally at home in an evening dress and blue jeans--not a marginalized victim seeking to uncover the source of her wound, and the film collapses around her like glaciers of melting ice. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Vanessa Redgrave makes a regal if too-brief appearance. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
This is the kind of story that might have been interesting had it not been populated with dreary characters played by actors who were clearly coached to be as dull as possible. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Drips along about as slowly as a polar ice cap and leaves both those who know the international thriller on which this creepy-doings-off-the-coast-of-Greenland yarn is based and those who don't out in the cold. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Jorgen Persson's camerawork is spectacular, illuminating the cobalt blue of the frozen wastes with an almost regal air. As a travelogue, August's film works wonders; as a narrative, it's just not all there. Read full review
40
SalonRobin Dougherty
It doesn't help that Julia Ormond -- perhaps the most un-Smilla-like actress walking the planet -- is cast in the starring role. She gives a competent performance, but she looks like Nancy Drew's pert-nosed cousin who somehow got trapped while sleuthing inside a snow globe, not the prickly, androgynous warrior Smilla is meant to be. Read full review
40
EmpireDeborah Brown
After the disastrous "The House Of The Spirits," Bille August should know from experience to leave good novels well alone. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubJohn Krewsom
The matter-of-fact way in which the story is presented serves as a constant reminder of how implausible the whole thing is. Add to this the single expression Ormond and Byrne are allowed throughout the film, and you're left with one more weak, confusing, ignorable movie that embarrasses its source. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The suspense is laughably absent. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not credited)
This lame bid at a thriller is hobbled by a plodding pace and a slipshod script. Read full review
30
Washington PostRita Kempley
Not only dense, dark and deeply introspective, it's also as remote as it's chilly. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The movie is gorgeously filmed and contains some fascinating lore about life in northern climes. But the plot is tritely predictable and far-fetched. Julia Ormond, Gabriel Byrne, and Vanessa Redgrave are among the performers who deliver less than their best. Read full review
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