Marcas do Passado

Is it destiny or did you make it happen? Are you going to die regardless of what you do to avoid it, or do you make decisions that result in your death? This neo noir with Guy Pearce (Momento, The Proposition, L.A. Confidential) was well written and exciting from start to finish.

Pearce made a perfect sleazy salesman and Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) has shown she can do a good dramatic role. I thought she was really good.

The story keeps you guessing until the very end. Did things happen because they were destined to happen, or did he choose to be in that place in that time.

FIRST SNOW involves a trade off. The action is slow, but there is a fairly compelling narrative. The story involves a brash young salesman who engages the services of a truck stop fortune teller, and finds that his life is nearly over. He's safe only until the first snow. Jimmy, played by Guy Pearce, must plan a course of action to determine the veracity of the prediction, and then act on his finding. FIRST SNOW creates a visual mood, and takes its' own sweet time to unfold. The film is a psychological thriller with the feel of a noirish foreign film. The two writers on this project collaborated on the far superior film, CHILDREN OF MEN, but FIRST SNOW makes a clever attempt to resolve the following conundrum. Our fate lies on whatever road we decide to take, yet nothing makes the gods laugh harder than when Man attempts to control his destiny. Guy Pearce's MEMENTO is a much better examination of the effect of predetermined events, but FIRST SNOW is certainly worth a look.

FIRST SNOW is a relatively low budget vehicle for star Guy Pearce, attempting to plough the same sort of furrow as his superlative MEMENTO. The simplistic storyline sees the star given news of his impending death by a trailer-park psychic, at which point his life begins to unravel as he attempts to do all he can to avert impending disaster.

The story in this one is straightforward enough, but it's more of a mood piece than anything. The small town photography is excellent and there's a cast of eccentrics and seasoned professionals who help to bring the story to life; Shea Wigham, William Fichtner, and J.K. Simmons are the stand-outs here. Pearce is excellent, as he always has been, and the director builds a genuine sense of foreboding as the narrative heads for its inevitable conclusion. My only real fault is that the twist ending is way, way too obvious.

Intriguing but ultimately uneven film that has it's best moments when Guy Pearce and J K Simmons are on screen together. It does not work so much when they are not, which is the bigger part of the film of course.It is a bitty film and the biggest element against the film is the fact that, you don't care enough for Pearce's character.Not a bad film just very average.

This taut little thriller, directed by first-timer Mark Fergus, is a real gripper with intelligence to spare and some seriously powerful stuff. The protagonist/anti-hero, Jimmy Starks (Guy Pearce in a role that hauntingly echoes his work in "Memento"), is a salesman/con man who easily slides in and out of legit selling and shady conning. Pearce carries this off beautifully, and is ably abetted in his downward spiraling tale by J.K. Simmons as Vaccaro, the strangely prescient soothsayer, William Fichtner as Jimmy's friend Ed, and some really great unknown actors in other supporting roles, principally the actor playing Jimmy's boss, who will hopefully go on to do more work on film (he's terrific).

Jimmy accidentally meets up with fortune teller Vaccaro who accurately predicts a win by a local college basketball team that Jimmy's bet on, as well as a windfall from an on-the-level business deal that Jimmy's involved in. What Vaccaro does not predict is the riveting, ever-darker series of events that ensue when Jimmy finds out that a former partner of his in a crooked scam, Vince, is now out on parole from a stretch in the slammer.

For my money, this is the best American noir thriller of the year so far, and would make a great addition, once it's out on DVD, to anyone's library of neo-noirs. The ending in particular is really strong--always the mark of a well-made film.

Try not to miss this. It's great.