Review of The Frozen Ground (2013) by Andy N — 15 Jun 2014

The Frozen Ground is your average procedural film that while it adds nothing new to the genre is propelled upwards by some pretty decent performances. Nicolas Cage as of late seems to only want to star in terrible films and give completely wacky performances, but in The Frozen Ground he remains down to earth, and likeable.

Vanessa Hudgens plays a really good troubled teen. At times her scenes get a bit over the top--but she attempts her best and doesn't necessarily bring the film down. John Cusack as a serial killer is an interesting choice.

He really sinks his teeth into the role and just has fun with it. He's creepy, awkward, and yet extremely terrifying. You get a scene with his family at dinner time and the tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

You can see his wife is just absolutely terrified of him and while you might not know exactly why--you get the sense she has some idea of what's going on or perhaps he's gotten physically angry with her before.

Overall the direction is good. There's a few loose ends here and there that you don't get answers to. It seems the whole film is leading towards a huge conspiracy within the police department and Alaskan government but then nothing ever comes of it.

There's also the pimps and or mobsters or whatever they are. John Cusack's "brother" which is just a hitman is never actually explained. There's also the relationship issues between Nicolas Cage's character and his wife that just get wrapped up in a neat little bow like nothing ever happened which is a true waste of Radha Mitchell's talents.

Overall if you're looking for something to watch and you have no idea what to watch, check out The Frozen Ground. It's a decent film with a ton of actors and actresses in it that are fairly well known and all of them do a decent job here.

Also, this film is yet another indie film in which Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson is in. If there's a harder working indie film actor than this guy then I'd be amazed. He's not necessarily good--it's just that he's in practically every damn movie I see a preview for now.

He's getting better at what he does, but he's got a long ways to go before he's really any good.