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Can you cheat fate?
That's the question in the psychological thriller First Snow, a dark outing about a man who comes to regret visiting the fortune teller.
Jimmy (Guy Pearce) is a guy who has "salesman" written all over him. Everything about him is just this side of wrong, and you can see the hustle in every aspect of his life, relationships included. One day when his car breaks down in some New Mexico backwater, he kills time with a visit to a flea-market psychic. What Jimmy wants to know is if he'll ever get out of flooring sales and into his pet project of jukebox sales.
The psychic gives Jimmy good news about work and one thing and another, but then has a violent physical reaction and yanks his hand away from Jimmy's. Our hero finds out that the psychic sees no future for him. Nada. Nothing. He'll only be safe, the soothsayer sayeth, until the first snow. Gulp.
At this point, First Snow begins a slow and delicious build-up of paranoia. Jimmy has decided to believe the psychic, and is now hyper-aware of all the menace and potential danger in every moment of his day. Dirty looks, speeding cars, loud noises, horrible newspaper headlines -- it's all fuel for his growing fear of death. And then there are the threats from within. Jimmy has had a health scare, for one thing. For another, someone is calling his house and hanging up, and somebody has put a violent image in his mailbox. Was it the salesman he fired? Was it the best friend from childhood he betrayed?
Jimmy decides to take matters into his own hands and see if he can't alter what fate has in store.
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First Snow was co-written by director Mark Fergus and screenwriter Hawk Ostby, the same team that wrote Children of Men. They've managed to put a story on the big screen that touches on ideas about free will versus preordination, and on notions of self-fulfilling prophecy -- no mean feat.
This is a good yarn made better by the presence of Guy Pearce, who is entirely believable as a man who has to rethink his life. Pearce gets lots of help from Piper Perabo, William Fichtner, Jackie Burroughs and the rest of the strong supporting cast.
First Snow is an auspicious directorial debut for Mark Fergus. It will be interesting to see what he does next.
(This film is rated 14-A)