Like a doctored photo on Match.com, the movie preview often lures us viewers in on false pretenses. Remember the previews for “The Ice Harvest”? It’s the movie with Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusack. You thought it looked pretty funny, like a dark comedy about two cynical crooks who fall down a lot, as they pull some amusing caper. That chubby guy, Oliver Platt, is in it, and he seems to fall down a lot, too. Harold Ramis directed it, and it looked darn funny.
Well, it wasn’t. In fact, it wasn’t even an un-funny comedy (like “Bad Santa”) but a dark, sinister film about two cynical crooks who pull an unnecessarily labyrinthine caper and do not fall down nearly often enough. Attempting the perversely comic tone that we have been forced to endure with extremely varying degrees of success since “Pulp Fiction,” we must bitterly laugh and think “Dude, that is so twisted!” yet again as a character preemptively shoots his own wife when his enemy threatens to. Really, as good as “Pulp Fiction” was, I don’t know if, in retrospect, it was worth the legacy it has spawned. Either way, it’s too late now.
There was no reason for this movie to be made. John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton turn in shopworn performances of this predictable material, and Oliver Platt’s role, though the only bright spot in the film, serves no discernable dramatic purpose. Of course, that might be asking too much of this silly plot.
And as the final insult in this grim tale, we must endure the hideous sight of Randy Quaid. He was never a handsome guy, but when did he get so grotesque? Remember how oddly disgusting he was in his little part in “Brokeback Mountain”? He is even grosser is this one. Yikes.
“The Ice Harvest” tries to shock us into laughing, or to impress us with its chilly, worldly characters as they knowingly do their dirty business, but this film succeeds only in boring us. Double-crossing, ultra-violence, dysfunctional families- we’ve seen it all before. And setting this tired mess to ironic Christmas carols doesn’t help one bit.
“The Ice Harvest” is currently available to rent.
There’s a lot more going on in David Cronenberg’s short but interesting “A History of Violence” which disappoints slightly after a provocative premise but makes a fascinating character study for its star, Viggo Mortensen, finally sans sword. As Tom Stall, a handsome and decent husband and father who runs a diner in a small town, he evokes wholesomeness to an almost comical degree until two dastardly criminals try to rob him and threaten violence against some people in the diner.
From the opening scene, we know how terrible these men are, and it is with great satisfaction that we see him dispatch the bad guys with an effectiveness and efficiency that is suspicious. One cannot imagine that if we were in that situation, adrenaline alone would turn us into such lethal, if righteous, avengers. And sure enough, others become suspicious of his expertise, too.
Soon gangsters roll into town and claim that Tom is not who he says he is. However, the question of whether or not this is so is not really the source of the film’s drama, for we spend little time in suspense. What makes this movie interesting is the transformation that Tom and his family go through, especially his teenage son.
However, I would have liked the movie to go further. How did Tom end up in this town? He refers to his past and how he has rejected it, but why? As engrossing as it was to watch the characters go through what they go through, I think we could have used more.
Nevertheless, what was there was successful. William Hurt makes a freaky appearance, and Ed Harris is reliably creepy as the gangster who comes looking for Tom. Above all, Mortensen is riveting, and even when the suspense of the plot has drained away, it is worthwhile to watch him.
“A History of Violence” is currently available to rent.
Contact Asia Frey at afrey@lagniappemobile.com.
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