The movie opens with a shot of
a road at night, and a bit of voice over: “This
road you’re on, you put yourself on this road. On this exact night. You chose
this. Man makes his destiny, right?” He may be asking himself that
question, but he seems to be asking us as well. And this is a movie that at
certain points may get you thinking about your own life and what you’re doing
with it. Do we make our own destinies? How much control do we really have over
the direction our lives take? On the car radio, we hear of a coming snow storm,
as Jimmy Starks (Guy Pearce) is seated in the driver’s seat, bleeding from his
forehead. We then travel back in time a bit to learn just what leads this man
to this point.
When Jimmy has car trouble in
the middle of nowhere, he makes the most of his time while the mechanic is at
work by trying to sell a jukebox to the local bar owner. Always the salesman. He
also sees a sign for a fortune teller, and, amused, and with more time to kill,
decides to get a reading. The fortune teller, Vacaro (J.K. Simmons), doesn’t
bother with the usual trappings of his profession, with Jimmy commenting, “No crystal ball.” During the reading, the
fortune teller suddenly freaks out, but Jimmy still finds it all amusing. Once
he is back home, the few things the fortune teller told him begin to fall into
place, which gets Jimmy to thinking. And when his doctor calls him on a
Saturday for a follow-up, he begins to wonder just what made the psychic react
as he did. What did that man see in his future? After visiting a professional
psychic in town and getting no real results – the film does a good job of
contrasting this likely fraud with the real deal – Jimmy travels back to see
Vacaro. When forced to reveal what he saw, Vacaro tells him he doesn’t have
much time left. “One thing is certain,”
he says. “You’re safe until the first
snow.” J.K. Simmons is fantastic in this scene.
The film has a kind of
beautiful, quiet tension. And that tension grows from this point onward, as
Jimmy begins to see death and its causes everywhere. And when he learns an old
friend is now out of prison, Jimmy has the feeling that his past is about to
catch up with him, and that leads to him beginning to unravel. Guy Pearce
delivers a riveting performance in this film. Piper Perabo is also quite good
as his girlfriend, who seems to understand Jimmy perhaps even better than he
understands himself. And William Fichtner also turns in a good performance as
Jimmy’s friend and co-worker. There are some light moments that break up the
tension, as when Jimmy says, “Lowest form
of organic life, the telemarketer.” Funny for a salesman to say that,
though no one would disagree with him, of course. One thing that struck me as
odd was that, fearful as Jimmy is, at one point he leaves his car unlocked and
the window rolled down. That didn’t seem quite believable. But other than that,
this movie holds onto you, tightening its grip as it goes, and leading us all
to ask ourselves what we would do if we knew death was coming.
Special Features
The Blu-ray contains several
special features, including a short behind-the-scenes featurette that contains
interviews with Guy Pearce, J.K. Simmons and Piper Perabo. This is
approximately three and a half minutes. There is also more behind-the-scenes
footage, showing the filming of the bar scenes as well as some exterior scenes.
That totals approximately seven minutes. A short interview with J.K. Simmons is
included, some of this footage having also found its way into the
behind-the-scenes featurette. He talks about his character, the script and what
drew him to the project. This is approximately a minute and a half. And there
are interviews with both Guy Pearce and Piper Perabo. Guy Pearce talks about
the script, about Piper’s character, and about whether he’d like to know his
own future. Piper Perabo talks about what got her excited about this project, about working
with Guy Pearce, about the director, and about shooting on location. These two
interviews total approximately seven
minutes. The film’s trailer is also included.
First Snow was directed by Mark Fergus, and this Blu-ray edition
was released on June 30, 2020 through MVD Visual.
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