The Snow Sister Review: No Cheers For This Christmas Film

The Snow Sister Review | Leisurebyte

Director: Cecilie Mosli

Date Created: 2024-11-29 13:30

Editor's Rating:
2.5

Julian’s Christmas-cum-birthday celebration takes a heartbreaking turn with his sister’s death sending his entire family down a dark, grieving path. Unable to find the magic in the holidays, he comes across Hedvig, whose fun, bubbly Christmas-loving personality makes Julian fall in love with Christmas once more.

The film is based on Maja Lunde and Lisa Aisato’s novel The Snow Sister and has a runtime of 96 minutes.

The Snow Sister Review

The Snow Sister is a Christmas movie that is just so depressing that it’s difficult to find the joy of watching it as a holiday film. From the first few minutes of the film, it’s quite evident that there’s something wrong in Hedvig’s life that we slowly get to see as a twist later on in the runtime. Meanwhile, things at Julian’s home aren’t great as well – after his sister’s death a year prior, things have been very depressing at home to the point that his parents are almost neglectful.

Through the happy times that Julian and Hedvig spend with one another, the heartbreak of watching these two kids make grown-up decisions and get in charge of their complicated emotions rings true constantly. While the sweetness of their friendship is infectious, it doesn’t help that everyone else in their lives fails them miserably. The grown-ups, especially, are thoroughly disappointing and I wonder why that is a theme in these children’s films. Can kids not learn lessons without their parents abusing them?

Hedvig and Julian’s friendship is, obviously, the most important part of the film. Mudit Gupta plays Julian extremely well and balances his hopefulness and warmth with heartbreak and despair. His character is made to be loved thoroughly and you can’t help but relate to his every emotion. On the other hand, bubbly Christmas lover Hedvig is sweet as sugar… almost too sweet. Viewers can’t help but question the truth behind her overwhelming positivity. The two characters are well-written and fit well into the theme of the story.

That being said, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with the storyline. The film gets extremely slow at some points and can leave viewers a bit bored. The film also breadcrumbs some twists from the very beginning and makes it extremely apparent from the first few minutes that there’s more to Hedvig than meets the eye. It almost reminds me of Bridge to Terabithia, a film that left me traumatised as a child. I think this works as a children’s movie in some ways, but it’s far too serious and heavy for them to enjoy in any way. And, unfortunately, adults will be able to figure out what is about to happen a few minutes into the runtime, taking away any interest that one might feel.

In the end, The Snow Sister is childish and extremely depressing. The twist is extremely predictable and the film doesn’t bring forth anything new. Even predictable films can be enjoyable if there’s enough happiness involved, but this one is such a downer, leaving viewers to be heartbroken by the end of the runtime. Sure, it does bring forth various issues concerning mortality and accepting the loss of our loved ones but there just doesn’t seem to be an end to the sadness and leaves us rather crestfallen by the end.

Final Thoughts

This Netflix film is fine, but nothing unique. The performances and the beautiful cinematography will leave viewers mesmerised but there’s just not enough to keep us invested one way or another and it doesn’t help that we are left thoroughly disheartened by the end.

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