Review of The Iceman (2012) by David G — 01 Feb 2014

"I have only one rule, no women or children".

It has been a fairly long time since iv'e seen a gangster type film, there have been some but nothing has had me this excited since 'Martin Scorsese' did 'The Departed'. And it seemed like it was never going to come, i'd seen the trailer in my cinema as long ago as November last year and I was instantly interested.

Starring 'Michael Shannon' as 'Richard 'The Iceman' Kuklinski' a man who ends up becoming one of the most notorious contract killers of all time, he tries to keep his family and work separate but things catch up with him. It Chronicles his life from a seedy job at a porn dubbing place to his eventual capture and arrest. Whenever a gangster film is based on the real life of a mobster there's always a danger of missing some important things out or including the stuff that just doesn't need to be there. Now I don't know a lot about the actual events of his life but of what little I know it seems the writer has mostly picked out the right parts. It does feel like a film just about 'Kuklinski' sure there's his wife 'Deborah' ('Winona Ryder') but there's the right amount of story on the other characters. Some of it is specifically about 'Roy Demeo' ('Ray Liotta') and 'Josh Rosenthal' ('David Schwimmer') relationship which while fairly interesting I wonder why it's included. It is at times a bit disjointed mainly because of the shift in focus from 'Kuklinski' but overall the pacing is nice it has a cold sort of feel to it and a realism. I also liked that it isn't just full of killing and his actual life and that despite all the things he's done he does regret it in part. The ending is particularly showing of this with the last words being "I don't regret killing all those people or other things iv'e done, but I do regret hurting my family.".

The most talked about aspect is the performance of the lead 'Michael Shannon' and if this was more well received I could see him being nominated for an academy award. He gives a imposing and cold performance throughout with a slightly warmer and happier feeling toward his family. He balances the contract killer and the family guy wonderfully. Likewise 'Winona Ryder' is also in fine form even with her fairly limited screen time. There's not a bad performance here. It reminds me a little of 'Killing Them Softly' from last year a film that got overlooked despite a great screenplay and fantastic performances. The visuals are really nice the very cool and blue look to the entire film really matches the cold and calculating personality of 'Kuklinski'.

'The Iceman' is a film i'd been waiting for a while and it turned out to be solid well written and wonderfully performed film that shows the exploits of one of the biggest contract killers of all time. 'Michael Shannon' really puts in a stellar performance as 'Kuklinski' and should get an Oscar nod. There is the odd pacing issue and a film about a particular person shouldn't really shift focus - albeit an interesting shift. Even so I have no qualms whatsoever recommending this film, a great and worthy mob film that while no 'Goodfellas' or 'The Godfarther' is not as far off as you'd expect.