Review of The Iceman (2012) by Peter P — 18 Nov 2013

Based on actual events, this is a dramatization of the life and career of Richard Kuklinski- one of America's most notorious contract killers.

Over the course of a few decades, the ruthlessly cold blooded Kuklinski claimed to have killed over 100 people. As fascinating as this is, he also managed to maintain a double life almost flawlessly (until he finally got pinched). When he wasn't out killing people, Kuklinski was a feverishly devoted husband and family man, keeping the dark half of his life secret until it was too late.

This film focuses on the heyday of Kuklinski's life and career, starting with his humble beginnings as a man who dubbed porn movies, and moving to his career as an ice cold killer until he finally got busted in the mid 1980s. There's a lot of condensation of the story, and plenty of omissions, but hey, when the film's only 105 minutes long, stuff has to be left out, unfortunately.

The film does hit the highlights though, and gets the point across, but I wanted more. I would have loved it had this been about 20-25 minutes longer, with more scenes of character development, story, and more scenes of people getting whacked. Call me a sicko, but if you're film's gonna ape from masters like Scorsese, you should probably go all the way or not at all.

This is a well made product, no doubt, but it really doesn't offer as much insight or depth, and that's a bummer since the real story and man are so fascinating.

Michael Shannon is solid as Kuklinski, and he's back by an equally sterling supporting cast that includes Winona Ryder, Ray Liotta, a scene stealing Chris Evans, an atypical turn from David Schwimmer, and all too brief cameos from Stephen Dorff and (even more memorably) James Franco.

I had my issues and disappointments here, but, while this film is rather bare bones, it's still watchable, so sure, you might want to give this a look. Just don't expect the whole to equal the sum of the parts.