THE ICE HARVEST Film Review

THE ICE HARVEST is an odd film. Advertised as a Christmas comedy, it is not (although it has a few chuckles scattered throughout). I didn't really know what to make of it at first, but it grew on me the farther into the movie I got. Eventually, I realized this was a neo-noir, and a highly effective one at that... It is a film that really makes you think. Naturally, all this was lost on the idiot BAD SANTA crowd the studio tried to lure in...

The story involves a Mob lawyer (John Cusack) and a porno shop owner (Billy Bob Thornton) who conspire to steal over two million dollars from the king of the Kansas underworld on Christmas Eve. Once they get the money, in true noir fashion, the plan starts to unravel, leading to one awful (sometimes comical) situation after another. Throw in the fact that the partners no longer trust each other, the lawyer has the hots for a strip club owner (Connie Nielson) and you'd have trouble enough. But the Mob Boss has sent a brutal thug (Mike Starr) to track the two first-time crooks down and this stirs the pot to boiling, culminating in several gruesome murders. There are lots of twists and turns to the plot; the characters are all shady, so you never really know who to trust or how it will end. Of course, once you realize it is a neo-noir, there is really only one way for it to end...

Be sure to watch the two alternate endings (included as special features) because the studio has put a "cop-out" (sort of) happy ending on the film that, while not bad, is neither true to the book nor to the noir genre. In alternate ending #2, Billy Bob asks John Cusack: "If you are what you do, and you never do anything, then what the f*** are you?" That sums up not only the essence of this movie but also the essence of life itself!

The Ice Harvest is also is a study of what it means to be a man today in America: how we are, each of us, utterly alone. How marriage and children and work are lies, illusions that fail to bring happiness and serve to drag men down. I've seen this happen to so many of my friends; they become spiritually homeless... They have attained the fabled "American dream" yet are miserable: married to stupid, greedy, cheating bitches; burdened with obnoxious, out-of-control kids; up to their eyeballs in debt and working useless, dead-end jobs. They wander through their meaningless lives like zombies, muttering "yes, dear..." and just waiting to die. It's pathetic! And you can't open their eyes once they've been closed, either. It's no wonder men have shorter lifespans, LOL...

It's rare that a movie makes me want to read the book (if I haven't already read it prior to watching), but The Ice Harvest succeeds admirably in this regard. The author's name is Scott Phillips and you can buy his novel here.