STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) lived a double life, to his wife Deborah (Winona Ryder) and their children a devoted, if emotionally distant, husband and father, but behind the scenes a ruthless, efficient killer for the mob, working for hard nut gangster Roy Demeo (Ray Liotta.) But when he proves unreliable, he pulls off hits with fellow mob goon Mr. Freezy (Chris Evans) which send his life spiraling down.
Have a browse around any good high street book store (the ones that are left standing as the recession wages on), and you will invariably find a section full of lavish, lurid true life accounts of those who were involved with/worked for the mob, peddling their stories, spilling the beans on the real goings on behind the scenes of this sub cultural, brutal world. As unsavory as this life is, there are obviously many who harbour a committed interest in knowing all about it, hoping the stylized lifestyle Martin Scorsese has shown in his films over the years is true. The Iceman, aside from being another such account, is also a film from the 'fact is stranger than fiction' staple, where real life comes off as even more unbelievable than something that could be made up in a film. But the real life Kuklinski did indeed fool his family, and even some around him, that he lived a far meeker existence than he really did.
But yet, in the lead role, Shannon manages to inject this unbelievable story with a hint of the realism that really was, portraying a man who seemed perfectly capable of detaching his two identities, switching from a moody but loving family man to ice cold killer away from them, while we witness his meek smokescreen start to disintegrate in scenes later in the film, as the pressure gets too much and the brutal personality that goes with his job starts to seep through to his family. All the support cast also play their parts well, including Ryder as his strong willed but emotionally fragile wife and Liotta, as the mean hearted mob boss who employs him, a nasty piece of work who gets him to prove how ruthless he is by murdering a poor, pathetic homeless man in cold blood, without mentioning support from the likes of David Schwimmer and Robert Davi, all taking a risk with a young director who's probably just made his most high profile feature film.
Strong performances aside, it never manages to stand out significantly from any other mob type film, and loses it's narrative flow slightly when The Iceman parts company from Liotta's character, before ending suddenly with no clear hint of his impending downfall. Still, if this isn't Ariel Vromen's instant classic, it certainly feels like a stepping stone to something like it. ***
Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) lived a double life, to his wife Deborah (Winona Ryder) and their children a devoted, if emotionally distant, husband and father, but behind the scenes a ruthless, efficient killer for the mob, working for hard nut gangster Roy Demeo (Ray Liotta.) But when he proves unreliable, he pulls off hits with fellow mob goon Mr. Freezy (Chris Evans) which send his life spiraling down.
Have a browse around any good high street book store (the ones that are left standing as the recession wages on), and you will invariably find a section full of lavish, lurid true life accounts of those who were involved with/worked for the mob, peddling their stories, spilling the beans on the real goings on behind the scenes of this sub cultural, brutal world. As unsavory as this life is, there are obviously many who harbour a committed interest in knowing all about it, hoping the stylized lifestyle Martin Scorsese has shown in his films over the years is true. The Iceman, aside from being another such account, is also a film from the 'fact is stranger than fiction' staple, where real life comes off as even more unbelievable than something that could be made up in a film. But the real life Kuklinski did indeed fool his family, and even some around him, that he lived a far meeker existence than he really did.
But yet, in the lead role, Shannon manages to inject this unbelievable story with a hint of the realism that really was, portraying a man who seemed perfectly capable of detaching his two identities, switching from a moody but loving family man to ice cold killer away from them, while we witness his meek smokescreen start to disintegrate in scenes later in the film, as the pressure gets too much and the brutal personality that goes with his job starts to seep through to his family. All the support cast also play their parts well, including Ryder as his strong willed but emotionally fragile wife and Liotta, as the mean hearted mob boss who employs him, a nasty piece of work who gets him to prove how ruthless he is by murdering a poor, pathetic homeless man in cold blood, without mentioning support from the likes of David Schwimmer and Robert Davi, all taking a risk with a young director who's probably just made his most high profile feature film.
Strong performances aside, it never manages to stand out significantly from any other mob type film, and loses it's narrative flow slightly when The Iceman parts company from Liotta's character, before ending suddenly with no clear hint of his impending downfall. Still, if this isn't Ariel Vromen's instant classic, it certainly feels like a stepping stone to something like it. ***