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83First 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.
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80The 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.
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75Movies 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.
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75A haunting neo-noir about a man told by a palmist that his karma is about to run over his dogma.
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75Knowledge 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.
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75If you approach First Snow as a straight thriller, it's not terribly satisfying.
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70First Snow is an interesting and entertaining film. It's suspenseful and kind of scary.
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70First Snow has a fine sense of place and a small but terrific turn by veteran actress Jackie Burroughs.
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70A 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.
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70I was beguiled by both the eerie moods and the striking compositions, which incorporate large stretches of empty space.
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63The story falters only at the end, but it's the ride, not the destination, that you remember and savor the most.
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63Fergus' 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.
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63It's a slow, moderately involving descent into the inevitable, with Pearce gamely trying to figure what's going on. Better him than me.
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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.
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50It'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."
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50A neo-noir thriller long on atmosphere and short on production values.
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First-time director Fergus's film is more a moody, tedious anti-thriller about ineluctable fate.
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50Engages but underwhelms.
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50A movie that clearly aims to be a cool, picturesque modern film noir becomes another moody banality.
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42It's the script -- by director Mark Fergus (who also wrote the adapted script for "Children of Men") and Hawk Ostby -- that lets everyone down.
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40First Snow tries hard but lacks originality.
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33Pearce is usually dependable, but here, he's utterly unconvincing as a slick phony, and the film peddles a bogus bill of goods in kind.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 2 out of 4
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Mixed: 2 out of 4
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Negative: 0 out of 4
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CraigP.7A great film about destiny and death with a wonderful performance by Guy Pearce.
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KenG7