Snowpiercer: Finally watching it three years later

This 2013 film has been on my radar (if the back burner) since it was in theaters, as several people told me it was not only worthy but devastating.  As much as I love advice, one of my basic flaws is that I hate being told what to do.  So I waited three years to see it.  (That's right, don't boss me around!)

And so, I've had Snowpiercer on my Netflix list for ages, and after finally sitting down to watch it today, I'm still on the fence.  This is a major achievement for the filmmakers, as the world they have created and the post-apocalyptic society that unfolds as the film goes on is fascinating, terrifying, and almost hypnotic in its detail.  But in the end, the pacing is uneven, making the film seem like a three-hour slog (when it's actually just over two hours in length).  The characters are strangely flat, while the world they live in is not.  And while so many of the performances are exceptional, the overall result is frustrating.  But let's start with the good stuff:

Tilda Swinton is one of my personal favorites, and here she is eerily believable as Mason, a power-hungry bitch crazed with greed, bloodlust, power, and blind faith in a distant, invisible Wilford. Shivers galore, with or without the teeth.

Chris Evans gets to show some chops:  it's so nice to see him stretch beyond the two-dimensional limits of simple bravery and persistence.  The scenes that ring true are quite laudable. I would love to get into ridiculous detail about the artist, the food, the fish, the red letters, the drugs, the train babies, the aquarium... 

But first, let's offer a few specific shout-outs:

• Alison Pill -- vapid belief, eye-fluttering ecstasy while playing the organ.  Clear intent holding a gun with one hand and her swollen belly with the other. She was an astonishing talent as a very young woman (do see Pieces of April), and she just keeps getting better. 
• Jamie Bell, as Edgar, excellent from beginning to end (as usual).  Every moment rings true.
• Octavia Spencer is always a wonder:  passionate, quirky, full of life and truth.  Here she is courageous, tragic and beautiful, whether she is fighting for her child or caring for others
• Emma Levie as Claude, the yellow bitch.  Ruthless, almost alien, unpredictable, with a voice that sounds remarkably robotic, reminiscent of Siri?
• Ed Harris, with a strangely deep and rather artificial voice.  The final twist, suggesting that Gilliam was a part of the Reich...

In the last third, although it's fascinating to see the different sections of the train and get an idea of how this society has worked for so many years, the characterizations devolve into less interesting stereotypes.  Evans is given little to do other than look alternately fierce/horrified and then hit people, he spends long periods with the same look on his face.  But when a director makes an actor spend such long periods in close-up, and in situations that would leave most people numb, it works somehow.

The film redeems itself by giving him a devastating monologue as he smokes one of the world's last cigarettes, and tells a tale that fills in a few gaps in the story and makes horrifying sense of the society that has been built. The evil genius Wilford fills in the rest later, with plot twist after plot twist, and a keener use of logical justification than I would have anticipated:  for a second there, he was almost eerily persuasive.

There are plenty of things that don't make sense, and were likely explained in the graphic novel: there are two many supply issues that shouldn't have been possible; Wilford complains about the noise, yet his abode in the engine car is eerily quiet; and why were the people in the fire pit car wearing fur coats?

But in spite of these head-scratchers (and I will definitely watch it another time or two to pick up a few more details), this persistently bleak drama is riveting and indelible.