THE ICEMAN – The Review

Michael Shannon is one hell of an actor. However, even he can’t save the bad writing of THE ICEMAN.

Here’s the deal. What they are trying to accomplish is to make “The Iceman” or Richard Kuklinski a compelling character that you feel compassion for. The story is based on Kuklinski, so he is the main focus. The murders, unfortunately, fall a bit flat. Despite focusing on his hundreds of kills, they shine more of the limelight on his love for his family. I feel that some might be disappointed with the lack of focus on the murders, but the film itself concentrates more on the man. The script feels a bit weak still. All of the compassion felt for Kuklinski comes from Michael Shannon. He is a fantastic actor who offers a complete dimension of layers. Still, the writing doesn’t begin to do justice to what they could have brought to this story.

Michael Shannon out-shadows everyone in this film. There is a kind of brutal, violent force among his many layers. The only other actors that truly impressed me are Winona Rider and Chris Evans I don’t think people utilize Rider enough. She is a terrific talent, and it can clearly be seen in this film. Evans plays a sort of peer type of character, and is almost unrecognizable. He compliments Shannon well.

Stephen Dorff and James Franco have smaller scenes that are far too overacted. They don’t feel like they belong in the film. Ray Liotta is Ray Liotta in any other film that he’s been in. Goodfellas, The Place Beyond The Pines, Hannibal, Smoking Aces, Blow. I have yet to see Ray Liotta in a character role that has been set apart from the majority of the roles he plays. He’s great at his specific, powerful, often times corrupt character, but we’ve seen it enough times to expect it. Even his stint on Hannah Montana as the principle didn’t vary much. I would like to throw out that it was nice to see David Schwimmer break out of his “Ross” from Friends role. He was almost unrecognisable at first. I’m impressed.

Director Ariel Vromen pieced the film together based on a screenplay by himself and Morgan Land. They pulled it based using a combination of sources, such as the fictionalized book by Anthony Bruno and on James Thebaut’s 1992 HBO documentary, The Iceman Tapes: Conversations With a Killer. The film takes on a Goodfellas or The Sopranos vibe, without the punch. The whole story is character driven. The direction fell flat, in my opinion. The film was fluid, and despite feeling a neo-noir edge, there was nothing that particularly stood out to me.

Overall Rating: 2 1/2 of 5 Stars

THE ICEMAN opens in St. Louis Friday, May 17th at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater and is open in select theaters now