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Leave it to a foreign director working with an international cast and adapting a French graphic novel to make the most audacious and intelligent science-fiction film in a long time. It’s a downer of a film, frequently diverting into absurd territory, punctuated by moments of satire and unafraid of balancing out poetic images with brutal violence. It may not always smoothly traverse the different tones or twists and turns in the story, but I give it high-praise for even bothering to try it out.
Rarely does a film emerge from the hands of the Weinstein Company without numerous edits and obvious bits of interference. So a round of applause is in order to Korean director Boon Jong-Ho for sticking it to them and demanding that his original vision without compromises or edits make it to the screen. That he won is a wonderful bit of kismet, but the downside was Harvey Weinstein’s wrath – dumping the film with a small scale release and limited promotion.
Pity, this film deserves to find a larger audience. I loved every moment of its audacious choices, whether or not they turned out to be fully formed ideas or half-formed sketches is beside the point. Snowpiercer is a film that makes a never-ending train ride to nowhere in particular seem like its own brand of hell, and exactly like our current political and social landscape. As the Have-Nots struggle and try to revolt for a piece of the Haves, the film echoes various revolutions and uses that ideology to slowly unfold a darkly satiric film.
The only true point at which the film threatened to lose me was when we came upon the conclusion to the story, which ended up in a different location than I thought it was willing and ready to go. If the film had ended with the destruction of the train, Snowpiercer would have had more philosophical impact and allegorical weight. The only way to save humanity at this point would be to destroy the existing structures and start again. But it continues to go on, and that ending is a bizarre choice which feels too hopeful and optimistic for such a downbeat movie. It didn’t torpedo the film for me, but it did take some of the varnish off of it.
Jong-Ho has assembled an interesting cast, and I mean that as high praise. Each of them brings a unique voice and tone to the film, even if a few them aren’t given much to do, they bring a certain spark or energy to their scenes. The mixture sees Oscar winners (Octavia Spencer, Tilda Swinton), living legends (John Hurt, Ed Harris), character actors (Jamie Bell, Ewen Bremmer, Luke Pasqualino), and a few international stars (Ah-sung Ko, Kang-ho Song, Emma Levie). Alison Pill shows up in a single scene, one that is so gonzo and brilliant that it may just be the highlight of the film. Pill’s uber-perky facial contortions lead into a shootout, and she sells the hell out of the material while simultaneously making the case that she needs to be given bigger, better roles in the future. (Of course, I felt this way after her scene-stealing in Scott Pilgrim and Midnight in Paris.)
But Snowpiercer’s greatest asset is Chris Evans. Best known for playing Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Evans is really developing a talent for playing conflicted heroes who lead the troops into battle. Of course, Marvel would never let Evans go as dark in those films as he does here. Maybe Snowpiercer will be the film that cements Evans as more than a pretty face (and body, but I digress…). A monolog late in the film sees Evans pour out year’s worth of guilt and resentments, and he’s mesmerizing to watch. Even better is a climactic scene in which he is tempted to become the new head of the ever-moving train, abandoning his mission and joining the 1% at the very top of the food chain. You can see his breakdown of everything he’s ever believed, every piece of faith in his revolution and mission, that moment of great temptation in which our savior may very well indeed go dark.
What Snowpiercer lacks in subtlety, which is doesn’t even bother with by and large, it makes up for with a sense of imminent danger and unpredictability. It’s almost cruel how quickly it dispenses with characters who seem like they’re destined to make it to the final reel, frequently killing them off in ways that are indifferent or indistinct before realizing that, yes, that character truly did die. Swinton’s callous minister reminds them that they must always know and keep their place, and her character is practically the symbol for the entirety of the film’s political allegory. She is misplaced superiority, a violent moral authority, and severely lacking in compassion, she wouldn’t seem out of place at a Tea Party rally or delivering quips on Fox & Friends.
It used to be that science-fiction took modern day problems and reflected and refracted them in strange, intelligent ways. Somewhere along the way it turned into lasers blowing shit up in the space real pretty, and while that can have its charms, it’s exhausting when year after year that is the only meal option being given to you. It was exciting to see 2014 give us smart comic book movies in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a monster-fest in Godzilla, but I think Snowpiercer will be the one to go the distance in the end. Inch by tenuous and hard-fought inch, we climb forward in the train, wondering what strange vision will greet us next. While the ending may be a strange place to exit the journey, what a ride it was to get there.
