Smilla`s Feeling For Snow Review

Peter Hoeg`s poetically written novel Miss Smilla`s Feeling For Snow had as its central character a lonely but strong-willed woman who lives in Copenhagen (her father is a danish doctor) but was raised in Greenland by her Inuit mother. As a result, she possesses intuitions - and a feeling for snow - which help her solve the mysterious death of a 6-year-old Greenlander who falls from the roof of the apartment building where Smilla lives...Bille August`s film of this intriguing mystery is compromised from the word go by the casting of Julia Ormond, a decent actress but one whose very Englishness seems at complete odds with the ethnically specific character of Smilla: even though her father has been turned into an American (played by Robert Loggia) for the film, lovers of the book will be instantly distanced by the miscasting. Setting that aside, the first half of the film is intriguing enough - and includes a striking cameo from Vanessa Redgrave - but the second half descends into sub-James Bond territory, leaving fine actors, Richard Harris and Gabriel Byrne among them, unable to make much sense of the proceedings. Visually the film is often stunning, but it isn`t enough.