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Smilla's Sense of Snow is a revenge tale of sorts, that stars Julia Ormond playing the female version of Dirty Harry. At one point, she is so fed up with her father's wife, she grabs the girl by the neck with one hand, and by the crotch with the other, and says, "leave me alone!" This is one tough babe, who is sexy as hell. She wants to know what happened to her 'friend' (a homely child who lives next door to her, and was killed). Where her investigation takes her is something you would see in a James Bond film.

Nice acting by everyone -- especially Ormond. The film is just so out there, and it wears thin quickly, and goes nowhere slowly. Worth seeing for Ormond's tough girl character though.

This is not a movie about how Inuit hunt for seals. Smilla lives in present day Copenhagen. This movie is anything but formulaic. It is part murder mystery, part paranoid thriller with faceless villains like the Conversation, part James Bond, with a drop of science fiction, and like none of those all that much.

The victim of a possible murder is a 6 year old boy whom you gradually get to know and care for deeply via flash backs of his tragic life.

One of the themes is trust. Smilla never knows whom she can trust. We in the audience weave back and forth trying to decide who is truly trying to help her and who to kill her or at least deflect her from her quest of finding out why and how someone would harm that little boy.

The movie is a maddening puzzle with clues coming thick and fast, but nothing making much sense. All you know is some very powerful people are involved and are ruthless in keeping silence. Smilla takes huge risks to gather information she has no particular reason to believe may be relevant other than others seem to be hiding it. Like a standard mystery novel, all is finally explained.

One interesting twist is, you in the audience even begin to distrust the caustic Smilla with her one-pointed push for vengeance.

Usually in a movie with a great many characters, I often find it hard to keep from confusing them. In this movie, the characters are all distinctly drawn, partly with a rich mixture of accents, so I had no such problem.

Some of the casting choices seemed a bit off, in particular Smilla's father's new teenage wife, Benja, who was obviously much older than a teenager, which made some of Smilla's cracks about her age not ring true.

Bille August's "Smilla's Sense of Snow" starts off with great promise. An opening sequence that's a terrific hook segues into an introduction of the character of Smilla Jasperson, played perfectly by the lovely Julia Ormond. Smilla is self-isolated, deeply unhappy, and unapproachable. Her only real friend is the young Inuit boy, Isaiah, who dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances, and Smilla determines to uncover the reasons for his death. For the first two reels, this film is a terrific mystery story with good pacing, fine acting, and evocative cinematography. Characters with uncertain motives come and go as the story unfolds, most played by a fine stable of talented actors. But then in the third reel, the film collapses. I'm not talking about a slow descent into mediocrity here; I'm talking about a precipitous nosedive. Out of the blue, the story suddenly switches to an action/thriller format that is poorly written, directed, and edited. New, undeveloped characters are suddenly thrown into the mix, each a deus ex machina as the increasingly unrealistic plot requires. The film's denouement, in which the underlying mystery is revealed, is so scientifically ridiculous both in terms of biology and especially in physics that I felt thoroughly cheated. It's as if the entire enterprise were rushed to completion due to a looming shortage of time, money, and interest. What a pity. Even so, the first two thirds of the film stand up well on their own, and my rating is based on that. Rating: 7/10.

A scientist who heads up a mining company in Greenland discovers a way to make money and garner power. However, in doing so he endangers others. After a child supposedly commits suicide, a woman who has doubts about the death begins an investigation in behalf of the dead boy. Her life is then threatened, but she never gives up. Eventually, she comes face to face with her enemies on a lonely ice floe far to the north. At times the story was hard to follow, and I felt it had a few holes in it. Sometimes it just didn't make sense. Still, it was worth the seeing.

I really, really, really liked this movie. Yes, I know the plot was a little twisted and the ending was very confusing and somewhat unbelievable at times, but this was a great movie. Julia Ormond's portrayal of the ice princess is absolutely fantastic. This has got to be her best role ever. With SSOS, she proves that she is not just a movie star, but that she is also a damn good actress. The supporting cast is superb. All first class actors, Vannasa Redgrave, Richard Harris, and Gabriel Byrne. I love Byrne's portrayal of the mysterious mechanic. Yes, he could have done a better job but that didn't hurt the movie. I have heard so much criticism from others regarding this film but the bottom line is, you either love it or hate it. I happen to love it. This is a great thriller/mystery/sci-fi/drama. Did I mention Gabriel Byrne, as good looking as ever? 9/10