Review of The Ice Harvest (2005) by Tyler M — 04 Dec 2007

Pay no attention to the man in the trunk.

Like most other films from Focus Features, this one is hit or miss.

The Story: A lawyer and a strip club owner hatch a scheme to steal a mobsters money for Christmas. There's a little bit more to the story than that, but not much more. It kind of moves around at a frenetic pace never standing still for one minute and only one character that really feels complete. What it actually boils down to is a drunken John Cusack wandering around the city at night going to various clubs and avoiding immanent death, all the while mingling with a handful of interesting if not shallow characters. It's stylish and fast paced, but than again it's less than an hour and a half long. It's got an all star cast, but they all kind of come and go as they see fit, making each character feel broken, empty and just plain incomplete. It's your standard film noir set up, partners in crime and a troubled broad searching for a way to escape the city... Key word standard.

The Cast: John Cusack... John Cusack is Charlie, a lawyer without the courage to pull the heist off on his own. His main goals in the film are don't get killed and find the stolen money that his partner hid. John Cusack is one of the few actors of this generation made for film noir. His look, his manner, everything about him screams noir. While his character might seem a little flat and 2-dimensional, it's arguable that it's all in the writing. A great performance but definitely not the best. Okay, something that sets this apart from the rest, as I mentioned before it's got an all star cast. So why isn't there more up there in the cast list? Because everyone's got such minor roles that they're hardly worth writing. I don't think anyone has more than 15 minutes total on screen other than Cusack... But there's notable appearances from, Billy Bob Thorton, Oliver Platt, Randy Quaid, and Connie Nielsen... Well Connie Nielsen isn't really "star" worthy, but she gives a notable performance as well. Everyone gives great performances some better than others.

One to Five Scale: 3.

It's hard not to call it a two... Only one out of five characters has any real depth and even than he's not that deep, it's got a lot needless sex and nudity, it's too damned short (why couldn't it be longer with more character development and story line?), and in all actuality it's just a drunk lawyer trying not to get killed... So why is a two? Because it's funny! And stylish... This film has a great dark sense of humor to it, and a brooding style to match. It's probably not worth a purchase right away, but it's a definite rental.

Tyler.