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First Snow
Yari Film Group Releasing


7.6

based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 5 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for language, some violence and sexuality

Starring Guy Pearce, Piper Perabo, William Fichtner, J.K. Simmons, Shea Whigham, Rick Gonzalez, Jackie Burroughs, and Adam Scott

Stranded after an accident outside a desolate town, Jimmy Starks (Pearce) visits a fortune teller (Simmons) to pass the time, but soon learns that his days are numbered. At first skeptical, Jimmy's world begins to unravel as the psychic's visions come true. (Yari Film Group)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Mark Fergus Hawk Ostby
DIRECTED BY:	Mark Fergus
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 27, 2007 Theatrical: March 23, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	121 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

First Snow is essentially a short story with a metaphysical twist, but Pearce puts his fears more up front than any actor I can think of.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

The actors, all strong, give the lyrical but never artificial dialogue the ring of life. Pearce is riveting as a go-getter who finds himself trapped between a murky past and a future defined by ambition.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Knowledge is not always a good thing and observing how one individual handles this unusual fantasy-tinged situation provides enough compelling drama to make Mark Fergus' debut feature a source of suspense, intrigue, and philosophical musing.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Movies like First Snow rise or fall on characters and atmosphere, and Fergus gets them both. But though the story's resolution does have irony and even a certain power, it lacks the charge, the Serlingesque "gotcha," that it needs.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

A haunting neo-noir about a man told by a palmist that his karma is about to run over his dogma.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

If you approach First Snow as a straight thriller, it's not terribly satisfying.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

First Snow has a fine sense of place and a small but terrific turn by veteran actress Jackie Burroughs.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A noirish thriller that revels in ominous visual moods, deepened by Cliff Martinez's spare, shivering guitar score, this heartland "Appointment in Samarra" is a mind-teaser that speaks the flat, evasive language of its seedy characters.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

First Snow is an interesting and entertaining film. It's suspenseful and kind of scary.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

I was beguiled by both the eerie moods and the striking compositions, which incorporate large stretches of empty space.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kamal AL-Solaylee

First Snow is, above all else, one man's particular journey. Pearce is a valid and compelling guide but he can't carry the full load of the movie's excess baggage. For the movie to completely resonate it has to strike the spiritual-angst note through his performance. Pearce comes close but no ... well, you know.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It's a slow, moderately involving descent into the inevitable, with Pearce gamely trying to figure what's going on. Better him than me.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The story falters only at the end, but it's the ride, not the destination, that you remember and savor the most.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Fergus' thriller benefits from Pearce's high-strung performance and the stark New Mexico landscapes, but the story is familiar and the pacing much too measured for a slight tale of ineluctable fate.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's déjà vu all over again for Aussie actor Guy Pearce, returning to motel rooms in the American Southwest to sort out metaphysical issues in the thriller First Snow, to somewhat less original effect than he did in "Memento."

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A movie that clearly aims to be a cool, picturesque modern film noir becomes another moody banality.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

A neo-noir thriller long on atmosphere and short on production values.

Variety Ronnie Scheib

Engages but underwhelms.

Village Voice Jim Ridley

First-time director Fergus's film is more a moody, tedious anti-thriller about ineluctable fate.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

It's the script -- by director Mark Fergus (who also wrote the adapted script for "Children of Men") and Hawk Ostby -- that lets everyone down.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

First Snow tries hard but lacks originality.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Pearce is usually dependable, but here, he's utterly unconvincing as a slick phony, and the film peddles a bogus bill of goods in kind.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Craig P. gave it a7:
A great film about destiny and death with a wonderful performance by Guy Pearce.

Ken G gave it a7:
They pretty much could have made the same movie without the fortune-telling stuff, but this is an intriguing, claustrophobic study of a man becoming obsessed that someone is out to kill him, and the effect that this has on him.

Chad S. gave it a4:
If Christopher Walken sees the future (as he did in "The Dead Zone"), there's going to be music; there's going to be ham. Awards aren't handed out to filmic dreck such as "Final Destination 3", or the more recent "The Number 23" (b-movie thrillers about fate and predestination), so when a fortune teller (J.K. Simmons) intuits destiny in the form of a dirt nap for his customer (Guy Pearce), Vacaro displays your usual convulsions which normally accompanies the discovery that a customer's allotment of time is finite and fast-approaching, but "First Snow" treats this paranormal occurence as if Jimmy was in for a routine check-up. The oncoming tragedy that's implied in the fortune teller's body language is played out in silence. We're in "the real world", a genreless diegesis, the filmmaker is saying. "First Snow" should be a road movie, or take-a-plane-to-some-country-near-the-equator-movie, but Jimmy, faced with the titular phenomena of nature, induces cabin fever instead. I don't know, sometimes dreck can be fun. "First Snow" is an existential bore (but speculating about the nature of Jimmy's narration will make for a lively post-movie discussion). Give me the cheap thrills of the underrated "Final Destination 3" instead, please.

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First Snow Yari Film Group Releasing

First Snow
Yari Film Group Releasing