REEL CANADA FILM REVIEW: The Snow Walker

film reviewed by Jenny Shen of Earl Haig Secondary School.

Set in around 1953, The Snow Walker stays true to its name, portraying a vividly poignant tale of survival and redemption in the cold Arctic tundra. With vast, breathtaking shots, and lively, well-casted characters, this cinematic adaptation of Farley Mowat’s short story, Walk Well My Brother, is certainly one to steal the hearts of nature lovers and cultural enthusiasts.

Director Charles Martin Smith – who has acted in Never Cry Wolf, another film inspired by a Farley Mowat story – shows a unique and visionary perspective to living at one with nature and finding peace within oneself. In The Snow Walker, Barry Pepper plays the cocky bush pilot Charlie Halliday, who, during a routine job, comes across an Inuit family seeking aid for a sickly woman, Kanaalaq (Annabella Piugattuk). Bribed into the deal, Charlie promises to bring her to Yellowknife for medical treatment, taking both Kanaalaq and a set of ivory tusks. However, Mother Nature has other plans, and as the pair fly their way across the desolate land, a storm unfurls, taking out an engine and crashing the plane. Lost and stranded, a frustrated and ever-arrogant Charlie sets out to find the nearest town, deserting his new companion under an oath that he will send a plane for her. Nonetheless, as starvation, insects, and the elements take their toll, the rescuer becomes the rescued, and Charlie finds himself under the care of Kanaalaq, who has followed him. As the indigenous woman nurses him back to health, she shows him how to live off the land, reflecting its own beauty and resourcefulness in herself. As the duo journey on, they overcome language barriers, share hidden memories, and create an unbreakable bond of trust.

The Snow Walker is presented well, with a simple storyline that reaches out to most audiences. The musical score suits the brilliant scenery, and the dialogue is succinct and clear. The characters, on the whole, are entertaining and believable, and the routines and traditions of Inuit life are respected and accurate.

Even so, the film does have its flaws; namely, the superfluously antagonistic Pierce (Jon Gries), Kanaalaq’s arbitrary advances in the English language, and the frequent, sudden cuts from the main storyline to Yellowknife, where Charlie is presumed dead. Moreover, the black-and-white flashbacks, though pivotal to the plot, are rather lacking in terms of quality and transition.

Yet, in spite of all this, The Snow Walker shines through, quietly drawing in its viewers with poetic landscapes, lovely musical scores, and a compelling cast to boot. All in all, it is an exceptional story that, in its own bittersweet way, portrays the ageless instinct to hope and to live.