User Reviews

Sadly, I cannot agree with the praise my fellow German reviewer had for this 100-minute movie here. "Der Schneemann" is a West German German-language film from 1985, so it is already over 30 years old. For most of the crew members working on this one, it is probably one of their most known works and this includes director Peter F. Bringmann. The film's popularity also has to do a lot with the name of lead actor Marius Müller-Westernhagen, who was still focusing considerably on his movie career. I am not sure if this was the best decision though as I personally think he is a far better singer/musician than actor. The problem I have with him here and in other works too is that the script never really manages to decide if he is a weakling as the small time crook he is or if he is the Central European equivalent of Bond loved by the ladies and able to save them effortlessly from professional gangsters. If this is what they call a character transformation or development, then I can only shake my head at them because it does not feel realistic at all. And same can be said about the entire movie probably as it is a bit of everything, but not really enough of anything and that refers to the genres like drama, crime, romance, action, comedy etc. Admittedly, you need to say that the cast surrounding MMW had crucial difficulties too. For example, I cannot say I am particularly mad that female lead Polly Eltes has never acted in a film apparently before or after this one. The bad guys were at least physically fine casting choices, but the acting could have been better at times too, even if they also had some solid moments. Even as a huge film buff, I must say that I did not know any of the actors (except MMW obviously) before watching the film, which wasn't helping matters either. And I forgot them right away when the closing credits rolled in. I think there were scenes that had potential, like the knife situation against the bad guy in the train, but honestly what they made of this premise was just disappointing in the following fight sequence. It was almost embarrassingly bad. MMW's trademark film will always be Theo of course, but this one here follows soon after probably. I'd say this one is on par with Theo, so you see I am not a great fan of that one either. Both did not feel memorable at all to me. Finally, I have to give it a thumbs down and let me add another comment that I have not read the novel by Jörg Fauser, so I cannot say if the problem is the base material or just the adaptation although my guess is the latter. Thumbs-down. Don't watch. Perhaps listen to "Freiheit" instead. There is more in these few minutes of the song than in the 100 minutes of this film.