First Snow (2006)

I always seem to like movies that Guy Pearce is in. From the unexpectedly good Lockout where he essentially plays a space version of Bruce Willis in Die Hard to the uptight and evil lawman that he plays in Lawless to the driven entrepreneur and fitness not that he plays in Results, Guy really manages to fit into the mold of whatever the character needs. He doesn't just bring the same character to every role and hope that it fits, and that's what I like about him.

In this movie, he's a middle-of-the-road salesman who gets stuck in some no place town while his car is being fixed. That's when he runs into the psychic played by J. K. Simmons who he has read his future on a whim. The news is not good. But, Simmons doesn't really tell him most of what he sees and sends him off with a full refund. Obviously, we're dealing with a real psychic. This becomes more clear when some of the prophecies come true. So, Guy finds him again to try and find out what the horrible news was that Simmons wasn't telling him about. Turns out, Guy will live. Well, he'll live until the first snow.

I don't know that I would ever have picked Simmons to be in the role of a psychic. I've seen him in lots of other things, and he usually a winds up being some form of police officer. I just don't know that he would have had the range to pull off a genuine psychic. Turns out, he does just fine. As does Guy, by the way.

There seem to be tons of supporting actors in this movie like Piper Perabo as the love interest, Rick Gonzalez as the down and out kid with a talent for sales, William Fichtner as the mostly unreliable best friend, and even Shea Whigham as the long-lost friend Guy once screwed over. Admittedly, most of the supporting talent would usually have been found in a made-for-TV movie or a straight out procedural series, but there is undeniable talent there, and this movie makes some pretty good use of it.

Tell me the future!
You Gonna die.

I've seen movies like this before. You know, movies that have an artificial timeline that everything needs to meet so you can keep the movie moving all the time. It's like a sword of Damocles hanging above the head of the main character, and we see him or her scramble through their life to try and get the things done that need done or to try and avoid the horrible fate that will befall them. While this movie seems to do it pretty well, I can't say that it does it exceptionally well. I'm not sure what would have put it over the top, but it's lacking something.

Acting was very good
Direction was good
Mood was very good
Cinematography was okay
Story was good, but needed more

Bottom Line: Interesting enough to watch, but not interesting enough to watch again.

2.5/5