50
First-time director Fergus's film is more a moody, tedious anti-thriller about ineluctable fate.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
First Snow has a fine sense of place and a small but terrific turn by veteran actress Jackie Burroughs.
50
It'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."
63
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Fergus' 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.
33
Pearce is usually dependable, but here, he's utterly unconvincing as a slick phony, and the film peddles a bogus bill of goods in kind.
83
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
First 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.
50
Engages but underwhelms.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden
The 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.
70
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
A 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.