Description

Review Holiday movies don?t get much darker, or more darkly humourous, 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 Product Description John Cusack stars in this blackly comic crime caper as Charlie Arglist, an affable lawyer who works for local mob boss Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid). Spending most of his time in a strip club where he pines after femme fatale Renata (Connie Nielsen), Charlie rarely sees his kids, and basically watches life happen all around him. Ready for a change, he decides to team up with criminal Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) and steal two million dollars from Guerrard, planning to play it cool before leaving town so they don’t create suspicion. All they need to do is make it through Christmas Eve, but that’s not going to be easy for Charlie, who spends the long night getting caught up in a series of insane and dangerous events.