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
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
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