The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)
by Harold Ramis
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bill Noble, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen, John Cusack, Lara PhillipsDirector: Harold Ramis
Brand: NBC Universal
Producer: Albert Berger
Producer: Glenn Williamson
Producer: Jim Fishman
Producer: Laurel A. Ward
Writer: Richard Russo
Writer: Robert Benton
Writer: Scott Phillips
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 92 minutes
Published: 2006-02-01
DVD Release Date: 2006-02-28
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: Noir and Noel and Nuance: Excellent Movie, Entertaining Backstory
Summary: 5 Stars
This is more than just another last-man-standing suitcase-full-of-money movie.
John Cusack plays an everyman, a lawyer who has sold out to the values of corporate corruption. With mixed feelings, he steals over two million dollars from the local mob on Christmas Eve, then plans with Billy Bob Thornton to make a break for it later on Christmas Day.
The mob boss (Randy Quaid) finds out and sends a hit man to get his money back, and the movie plot is about John Cusack trying to avoid getting killed by them.
The movie has been pretty much panned by almost every critic to review it, although Roger Ebert praised it enough for three stars. I loved it and loved the book before it. I realize that I am in a small minority in this regard.
What makes THE ICE HARVEST work for me is its noir blend of saltiness and satire, its mixture of comedy and karma.
The comedy here is based upon the hypocrisy of Christmas in this era of corruption and greed. All of the liars and killers and thieves in this movie talk about Christmas, about being home opening up presents with their kids. If you don't get that, I guess you won't see the comedy. It is nice that it is set in Wichita, Kansas, especially if you have read Thomas Frank's WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?
The opening graffiti above the urinal, "As Wichita Falls Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls," is a repeated line of jazz that caused an existential crisis for the film's French translator who had trouble distinguishing between "falls" as a noun and "falls" as a verb with a misplaced execution, Wichita Falls not being in Kansas but in Texas.
The author of this blood red graffiti is not revealed until the end of the film, at which time its coded karmic message seems clear, "what goes around, comes around," or "as ye sow, so shall ye reap."
The backstory segments are generous and entertaining, including a segment where the movie is discussed by book author Scott Phillips and the screenplay authors, Robert Benton and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo, author of STRAIGHT MAN and EMPIRE FALLS.
John Cusack is endearing as an everyman who has gone too far with a fantasy and now is just trying to survive.
Billy Bob Thornton is menacing as Vic. His idea of winning is the American way, giving lip-service to religion and humanist values while embracing ruthless materialism.
Oliver Platt plays a jolly-faced loser, John Cusack's hapless doppeldinger, addicted to sexual conquests and alcohol, now married to Cusack's former wife. He seems to be an extention of the drunks who played in GROUNDHOG DAY.
Connie Nielsen vamps it up, a cross between Lauren Bacall and Veronica Lake. She's a tribute to a different era, like the femme fatale in WHO'S AFRAID OF ROGER RABBIT?, not really bad, just drawn that way. The book fills the character out more and speculates more on her background as an abused woman who learned how to survive, a hardened refugee from the war in Bosnia.
Randy Quaid is terrific as a capitalistic Christian mob boss murderer, sad to be doing business when he could be home celebrating Christ's birthday.
This movie has fun poking fun, with style and karma, with a moral and a motto. As Jon Stewart says, "IN GOD WE TRUST" is our motto, and we place it where it can be read on every dollar bill in this film, "right where Jesus would have wanted it."
Summary of The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)
John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton lead an all-star cast in this hilarious and unpredictable thriller that critics are calling, "very funny stuff" (Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper). When lawyer Charlie (Cusack) and his partner Vic (Thornton) steal from a mob boss, they think they've pulled off the perfect crime. But when they race through a night filled with mayhem, lust and lethal surprises, they realize that the biggest risk they'll take will be trusting each other. From the director of Analyze This and Groundhog Day, The Ice Harvest cracks with outrageous laughs and slippery twists that will keep you guessing until the very end! Starring: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Platt, Connie Nielsen, Randy Quaid, Mike Starr Directed by: Harold RamisHoliday movies don?t get much darker, or more darkly humorous, than The Ice Harvest, an offbeat comedy that defies expectations. The involvement of director Harold Ramis might lead some to expect a straight-up comedy like Groundhog Day or Analyze This, but despite Ramis?s fine and atypically subdued work here, it?s the writers (Robert Benton and Richard Russo) who put a stronger stamp on their adaptation of the novel by Scott Phillips. Benton and Russo previously collaborated on Nobody?s Fool and Twilight (with Benton also directing), and those films are similar in tone and spirit to this quirky, modern-day film noir, set on a freezing Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas, where mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) has a lot on his mind. He?s just stolen $2 million from his boss (Randy Quaid), he can?t trust his partner Vic (Billy Bob Thornton), he?s secretly in love with the manager (Connie Nielsen) of the strip bar he owns, and his best friend (Oliver Platt, giving yet another terrific performance) is married to his ex-wife. Before the night?s over, several murders will complicate matters even further, and throughout it all, The Ice Harvest is anchored by Cusack?s good-natured presence in a bad-natured story that dares to combine double-crosses and bloodshed with elusive yuletide cheer. It?s a strange but oddly appealing combination, not for all tastes but refreshing for that very same reason. --Jeff Shannon
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