The Ice Harvest (2005) Focus/Comedy-Thriller RT: 89 minutes Rated R (violence, language, sexuality/nudity, alcohol abuse) Director: Harold Ramis Screenplay: Richard Russo and Robert Benton Music: David Kitay Cinematography: Alar Kivilo Release date: November 25, 2005 (US) Starring: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen, Randy Quaid, Oliver Platt, Mike Starr, Ned Bellamy, T.J. Jagodowski, David Pasquesi, Justine Bentley. Box Office: $9M (US)/$10.2M (World)
Rating: ***
The Ice Harvest is definitely not the kind of light uplifting affair one expects to find in their Christmas stocking. More Blood Simple than It’s a Wonderful Life, it’s a darkly funny tale of murder, greed, lust, blackmail, booze and betrayal set in icebound Wichita on Christmas Eve.
It would be my educated guess that all of the major characters in The Ice Harvest hold permanent spots on Santa’s naughty list. The same could be said of those responsible for the movie. It takes a really warped mind to come up with a Christmas story this dark and twisted so it comes as somewhat of a surprise that it’s directed by Harold Ramis, the man behind comparatively lighter fare like Caddyshack and National Lampoon’s Vacation. Yes, I’m fully aware Ramis also directed the Mob comedy Analyze This. Believe me when I say that the sleazy, morally bankrupt characters in The Ice Harvest make the wise guys and hired killers in the 1999 movie look like choirboys.
Call me Mr. Grinch if you will, but I really liked this movie. Strangely enough, I didn’t get around to watching it until this year. Hard to say why I put off watching it so long, but I’m glad I finally sat myself down and watched it. The only way to accurately describe The Ice Harvest is to tell you to imagine It’s a Wonderful Life reimagined by the Coen brothers. Heck, it even has a wintry landscape similar to Fargo. I must warn you it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but anybody with a warped sense of humor is bound to get a kick out of this one.
Mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (Cusack, Con Air) and crooked businessman/pornographer Vic Cavanaugh (Thornton, Bad Santa) have just stolen $2 million from vicious crime boss Bill Guerrard (Quaid, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation). The only thing standing between the pair and a clean getaway is the weather that has rendered all the roads in and out of town impassable (too icy to drive on). They decide to separate for the time being with Vic holding onto the cash.
Charlie has the hots for Renata (Nielsen, Gladiator), the woman who owns the local strip club (The Sweet Cage). She suggests that they run off together after he hints at the $2 million, but first she’d like Charlie to retrieve an incriminating photo of a local politician with a stripper. On top of this, Charlie learns that Guerrard has uncovered the theft and sent his brutal enforcer Roy Gelles (Starr, Dumb and Dumber) to set things straight. Making matters worse is Charlie’s drunken friend Pete (Platt, A Time to Kill) who tags along for part of the evening after they run into each other at a local hotel.
Okay, I’ve laid the ground work for the plot of The Ice Harvest. You will have to navigate the rest of it yourself as giving away any of the twists and turns would surely mean a few lumps of coal in my stocking. Suffice to say, it’s the perfect prototype for a new genre of film, Christmas-noir.
For starters, I love the setting of The Ice Harvest. You don’t usually associate such characters and events with the heartland of America. When I hear Kansas, I think of farms and The Wizard of Oz not strip joints and mobsters. However, since Wichita is the largest city in the state, it makes sense there would be a criminal underworld present. It actually augments the bleak tone of the movie. This is just one of the things that make The Ice Harvest stand out from the rest of the Christmas movie pack.
In true film noir form, the “hero” is the character who’s the least reprehensible. That, of course, would be Charlie. He’s a greedy, self-centered bastard who can’t even be bothered to buy Christmas presents for his children. He ends up buying them a whole bunch of cheap crap at a convenience store in the middle of the night. Still, he’s not as bad as the killers and lowlife scumbags that surround him. Cusack is a top-notch actor and does a great job here. This role gives him a chance to display his awesome versatility. Thornton likewise does a great job in the movie. He and Cusack have great chemistry together. Nielsen is amazing as the femme fatale of the piece (come on, you knew there had to be one!). Platt adds a measure of pathos to the proceedings with his drunken rhetoric in a few scenes.
As I already indicated, The Ice Harvest is NOT a joyous affair. It’s funny, but in a very dark way. Your enjoyment of this movie depends on your tolerance for such humor. I enjoyed it. I found it wickedly funny as well as reasonably suspenseful and fairly violent. But you know what, it’s pretty fun ride through Christmas-noir territory. The Ice Harvest is the cinematic equivalent of the strange Christmas gift that one usually receives as a gag from a very twisted friend. You’re not quite sure what to do with it, but you’ll have fun trying to figure it out.
