Hey, all. Capone in Chicago here. One of the most intriguing offerings of the year is finally opening today. Covered extensively through cast and director interviews by Quint and me, FIRST SNOW is a very human personal profile of a man forced to take stock in his life, but it's couched in a seriously creepy supernatural veil that makes it just perfect.

From first-time writer-director Mark Fergus (best known as one of the co-writers of CHILDREN OF MEN and the upcoming IRON MAN feature film) has created something that, on the surface, may seem like a simple story about a man so used to being in control of every situation in his life, that the very thought of having his fate predetermined and completely out of his control drives him slowly crazy. But what the film is really about is how the tiniest suggestion can shatter your preconceived notions of how the world runs itself and send you into a deep, dark corner of your brain that most people choose not to go. Maybe FIRST SNOW is about both of these themes, either way the lead character is massively fucked.

And who better to take us down this path of despair than Guy Pearce (MEMENTO, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, and last year's astonishing THE PROPOSITION), playing a successful, smooth-talking salesman named Jimmy Starks, who breaks down in the middle of nowhere and comes across a roadside fortune teller (J.K. Simmons) at the service station where his car is getting fixed. He predicts of few minor events in Jimmy's life, but gets squeamish upon deeper examination. Jimmy thinks the guy is playing him, but as some of the small predictions start to come true, Jimmy get nervous about what the mysterious soothsayer saw that freaked him out so much. Jimmy's business is going pretty good, but he's about to branch out into a new venture involving the sale of vintage juke boxes and the prospects are promising. His partner (William Fichtner, recently seen in BLADES OF GLORY) is a little worried about Jimmy, who seems distracted and anxious. Jimmy's girlfriend (Piper Perabo) is on the verge of leaving him when we first meet her, and things don't improve much between them.

Jimmy revisits the fortuneteller to get a few more details, which he gets but they don't really help the situation, and he starts to wonder where exactly this great danger forthcoming in his life will come from. He finds out an old childhood friend (Shea Whigham), who went to jail for a crime they both committed, has just gotten out of jail, and Jimmy believes he will seek revenge for the misdeed. Much like the recent release PREMONITION, FIRST SNOW calls into question whether someone can change their fate if they have some inkling when a terrible event is going to happen. The big difference between the films is that FIRST SNOW isn't a stupid piece of shit. Jimmy's ultimate destiny isn't really the most important thing in the movie. It's watching him maneuver through his life and his troubled mind searching for answers and remembering where in his life he made the biggest mistakes.

Not surprisingly, Pearce is scarily convincing here and does what he does best by embracing the material and taking something that could have been average in the hands of another actor and finding its soul. Director Fergus has a great eye for detail and chilling landscapes, and the supporting cast is top notch. FIRST SNOW is a small but powerful work that is content with and successful in finding its power in quiet moments.

Capone