First Snow

There is nothing I hate more than a movie that lets me down. Not a movie that I expected to be good, and it ended up being bad....no, that's just like biting into an apple, and finding a worm inside. When that happens, it even has the potential to be so bad it is good, a rare but awesome occurrence, much like Haley's comet. No, the real crime is a movie that is absolutely incredible for almost the entire duration, which then destroys all the good that came before it with a utterly disappointing ending. This event is also extremely rare, but it hurts bad, like the movie sucker-punched me right in the kidneys. Such was the case with First Snow.

And I hate to say it!! Because I love Guy Pearce, and think he is criminally underused in film...I don't know why. He created a timeless classic with his performance in Memento, was my favorite character in L.A. Confidential, was raving brilliant in Ravenous, and in The Proposition, made me, a girl who has an affinity for all things Spongebob, fall hopelessly in love with the violent Western genre. In Pearce's defense, however, I can't blame him for the sucker-punch. His acting throughout First Snow is awesome, as usual.

Pearce plays a slick jerk of a salesman whose car breaks down in the middle of a ramshackle town in the desert, where he decides to bide his time by getting his fortune read by a splendidly grizzled J.K. Simmons. He's told that he's gonna have a great business proposition fall into his lap, among other small predictions that all eventually come true...and then Simmons jerks as if he's touched hot coals, and you know that can't be good. Turns out he's seen that Pearce's character is gonna die, and he's gonna kick that bucket at the first snowfall. From this point, the story turns into a slow-burn of a psychological thriller, as we see Pearce desperately trying to figure out who kills him, and how to prevent it. Pearce does a great job through and through, making the audience root for a character who is kind of an ass, but really not so bad deep down. The film raises some good questions about fate and free will, and near the end, it seems as if the film is really building up to a shocker showdown of a climax. I was waiting with bated breath...and then...NOTHING. Highlight for spoiler: So Pearce is sure that his death is going to come about by an old friend he screwed over in the past who landed in jail for it, and now is seriously pyscho...Pearce is in the car, driving to meet the guy, after an hour of buildup to this point...and then we hear him say a voiceover about the path he chose and blah blah blah, the camera goes inside the car, he has blood on his face for some reason, a bright light flashes, and we are jettisoned to the next morning, with a view of skid marks on the highway, and a voiceover of a radio report about a car accident. A CAR ACCIDENT. NINETY MINUTES OF BUILDUP FOR A CAR ACCIDENT WE DON'T EVEN SEE. And where, tell me, did the blood on Pearce's face come from? It was there before this phantom accident. Apparently there was a showdown of some sort. WHICH WE NEVER SEE.
I was stunned. I literally stared at the screen with my jaw on the floor, trying to recover hopelessly from the crap the movie just pulled on me. I don't know why this happened, maybe they ran out of money, god knows the film was low-budget...but seriously? I've seen horrible films before, and even most of them give me a solid ending of some sort. Hello sucker-punch, meet my kidneys.
I think I need to go watch Pearce eat some people in Ravenous to get over this.