Julia Ormond takes the lead among a star-studded cast in the wintry mystery set in Denmark and Greenland
Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to cinapse.twocents@gmail.com.
In most of the United States, we’ve been experiencing a record cold streak. Frigid temperatures and vast snowy landscapes are fuel for some truly delightful terrors. This month, we are embracing the cold and watching 4 thrilling films set in the not-so-wondrous Winter. From an underdiscussed found footage gem to a seemingly forgotten vampire gorefest to a thoughtful study on cold weather chills to one of the best King adaptations ever put to celluloid. Beat the cold by warming up with a nice cup of cocoa and a horrifying film that’ll get your blood pumping!
The Pick: Smilla’s Sense of Snow (1997)
Bille August’s film immediately came to mind when this Two Cents theme was suggested. Based on a novel from Peter Høeg, the story follows young academic Smilla (Julia Ormond) as she looks into the wrongful death of her neighbor’s child and stumbles onto a conspiracy led by Danish scientists. And there are parasites involved! The cast is a who’s who of ‘90s dramas, including Gabriel Byrne as a love interest, Richard Harris and Tom Wilkinson as baddies, Robert Loggia as Smilla’s wealthy dad, Jim Broadbent as a coroner, Vanessa Redgrave as a former mining executive, and more. The warm moments in Smilla’s Sense of Snow are rare; both setting and plot are chilling.
The Team
Elizabeth Stoddard
I don’t often recall where I was when I first watched a film, but I specifically remember seeing Smilla’s Sense of Snow on cable TV in college, while babysitting for a professor’s kids. I’m not sure what I expected, but the dark creepiness of the story as well as the bitterly cold setting was stunning and memorable. At the time I also was pretty taken by the romance featuring handsome Gabriel Byrne, although in my recent viewing this aspect plays weak and forced.
Smilla (Julia Ormond, Sabrina, Legends of the Fall) is stoic and hard-shelled, so seeing her slowly seduced by Byrne’s unnamed “mechanic” character rings a bit false. She’s been let down by others – her Indigenous Greenlandic mother who died when she was a kid, her Danish father (Robert Loggia, Prizzi’s Honor) who didn’t know how best to raise her, the alcoholic neighbor who neglects kid Isaiah and leaves him to spend time with Smilla – so the notion that she’d so easily fall for this untrustworthy man is doubtful. Still, he’s played by Gabriel Byrne, so we get it.
Smilla’s Sense of Snow is a slow-burn thriller, with the lead taking on an investigation that becomes ever more personal. In this viewing, I found myself losing patience with the pacing and wishing it was tighter. The storytelling meanders a bit, but the cinematography – specifically when in Greenland – is just as chilling as I remembered. A few of the plot points haven’t aged well (there’s a sexual assault scene that made me cringe) yet Ormond’s tough as nails take on Smilla remains compelling enough to intrigue the viewer – never mind the inconsistencies of her character.
The 1997 film directed by Bille August wasn’t a hit, but it’s surprising that it’s disappeared so easily from cultural memory (and it’s not streaming anywhere). Especially given the heavy-hitting supporting cast! I’m happy this theme gave me an opportunity to revisit and reevaluate the wintry thriller.
Ed Travis
Smilla Jaspersen walked so that Lisbeth Salander could run.
I enjoyed Smilla’s Sense Of Snow as a twisting and turning thriller with an absolutely stunning cast that kept me entertained throughout the runtime. I would say it never quite exceeds the sum of its parts, however, feeling like a really enjoyable airport paperback adaptation, but nothing more. This type of film was Hollywood’s bread and butter for a while there; almost its own genre, and at is heights in 1997 when this film was released (adapted from a 1992 novel by Peter Høeg).
Julia Ormond is stunning, if perhaps a little stilted, as the fascinating Smilla Jaspersen. She’s confident, capable, compassionate… and cold. She puts up with no bullshit from men and is clearly the smartest person in the room throughout this mystery. Who could possibly have known, also, in the early 1990s, how unfortunately relevant it would be here in 2026 to prominently feature the native people of Greenland in your thriller, centering on the injustice of them being looked over and cast aside by domineering white people? A little native Greenlandic boy who Smilla loved and cared for in her apartment building ends up dead after “falling” off the roof. Smilla can immediately tell something is amiss from the snow patterns found there. She herself is half Greenlandic native, having grown up in the wilds and being brought into a more European life upon the death of her mother. Of course big corporate greed is the culprit and only Smilla’s dogged fearlessness, and all the rich white mens’ underestimation of her, will crack the case.
It’s actually somewhat shocking how similar this felt to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, where the brilliant but broken Lisbeth Salander uncovers murderous conspiracy with her special set of exceptional skills, complete with a male partner who is attracted to her, and whose own motives can be questionable at times.
With Richard Harris, Jim Broadbent, Robert Loggia, Tom Wilkinson, and Gabriel Byrne all classing up this joint as both friends and foes of Ormond’s Smilla, this cast elevates the end product. Not to mention a score from Harry Gregson-Williams and Hans Zimmer! It’s a good time at the movies even if what came after it made it feel somewhat familiar.
Justin Harlan
I liked, but didn’t totally love this film – ok, so, to be fair though, I definitely liked it a good bit and went with a solid 3.5 stars on the Letterboxd. I’m not sure exactly what kept me from loving it, but I think it was just missing a little something for me. I think the biggest thing was that even at 2 hours, it felt like it could use a bit more fleshing out in certain parts – which could be remedied by the 2025 mini-series made on the same book which I most certainly plan to check out.
The biggest praise here is the cast, most specifically Smilla herself. Julia Ormand really stands out from her delivery of Smilla’s wit and sarcasm to the raw emotion when Smilla is set on kicking ass and taking names. While I’m not wholly unfamiliar with Ormand’s work, this is the first film where she’s the lead that I think I’ve ever watched fully. Suffice it to say, I’m a fan.
The story gripped me and I’m really stoked that I was introduced to this one. Can’t wait to check out the book and the series too.
Frank Calvillo
The year of 1997 was a formative time for me as a burgeoning cinephile. It was the time of The Ice Storm, Wag the Dog, The Boxer, Ulee’s Gold, Boogie Nights, The Wings of the Dove, and Good Will Hunting. In the midst of this mix of very distinct titles was Smilla’s Sense of Snow, a title that, without question, belonged in the very same class of the aforementioned films, yet also somehow belonged in a class all its own.
For me, Smilla’s Sense of Snow feels like part of the post-New Hollywood wave of films that defied the typical filmmaking conventions of the day and instead harkened back to the stylings of the late 1960s, especially in the way it managed to make its own voice heard. No film in 1997 could have asked for a better protagonist. Smilla is a wonderfully rich character, one of real complexity and deep emotion. Her struggle with identity is at the root of what makes her complicated, but is also what fuels her strength. Listening to her describe math to Gabriel Byrne (at his most gorgeous) is dizzying in the best possible way, and incredibly beautiful.
Smilla’s pull towards solving the murder she’s stumbled upon results in her best moments as a character and proves that this is Ormond’s most compelling performance. Teh more shels told and strongly urged to let things go, the more she is determined to uncover the truth about what happened to this innocent child. After watching her hold her own opposite legendary leading men like Sean Connery, Richard Gere, and Harrison Ford, Smilla feels like Ormond’s chance to shine in her own right, and she’s more than up to the challenge. The role is one any actress would go to the ends of the earth to have, and Ormand does, skillfully playing up the character’s humanity and intelligence, especially in the confrontational scene with Benja (Emma Croft), a moment which had me with my mouth wide open.
Beyond Ormond’s grean performance, Smilla’s Sense of Snow contains a great many cinematic qualities. The top one of these is the film’s sense of place, which feels really insanely cold, and rightfully so. This is absolutely the right landscape for this story to take place in, especially since the environment is so tied into her identity. Both Copenhagen and Greenland feel like such magical, slightly otherworldly places that you almost can’t imagine this film taking place anywhere else.
The film is also aided by a collection of welcomed familiar faces, including Richard Harris, Robert Loggia, Vanessa Redgrave, Tom Wilkinson, and Jim Broadbent, all of whom show up in colorful supporting roles. Yet no one serves Smilla better than Byrne’s mechanic. The actor is not only a fantastic scene partner for Ormond, but the two also manage some very potent chemistry together. Watching him try to reach her only for Smilla to reject him because she’s not where he’s at is devastating, yet feels true.
Sadly, the mystery of the film does not work and lets both Smilla and the audience down. But no matter. Smilla’s Sense of Snow is less about the mystery and more about a smart late-90s cinematic heroine finding herself, which you’d like to believe she does.
All month, we’ll be trying to heat ourselves up by watching some freezing cold terrors! Join in by sending your thoughts on any of the films above to cinapse.twocents@gmail.com or your favorite Cinapse staffer by early in the week listed above. Hope to see you all month long and try to stay warm!
