Billy Bob Thornton has had terrible luck recently with his films (see "Bad Santa"), but he lucks out here with "The Ice Harvest," a great example of film noir set, naturally, on Christmas Eve in Wichita. Everybody in this film -- and yes, I do mean, everybody, including the people you're supposed to be rooting for -- shows an unsavory side. Thornton shows his side with equal parts of passion and cunning. John Cusack, playing a mob lawyer involved in a plot to swindle his employer, plays his role with enough subtlety that he passes for an attorney, enough venom to let us know life has treated him wrong (and he has returned the favor), and everyone else runs the gamut from fawning to mischievous to I-can't-believe-I've-gotta-spend-the-holiday- doing-this angry. It's no spoiler to reveal that this plot has enough twists to keep any mystery lover happy, and a few near the end come with warning beacons. But this movie carries far more laughs than the usual December comedy.
Review of The Ice Harvest
