Shannon balances the two sides of his character superbly, and it is in the scenes where the two alter egos collide that Shannon’s commitment to his craft stands out. However, in its individual storylines (specifically the fallout from Shannon’s decision not to kill a witness) screenwriters Vromen and Morgan Land ( RX) weave a tangled tale of the struggles of lower middle-class gangsters trying to survive in a world where the puppeteers (the Bigwig gangsters) are calling all the shots and leaving Kuklinski to clean up the mess. It wasn’t until I was nearing the mid-point of the film that I was fully attached to the predicament that ‘The Iceman” had gotten himself into, but by then I had enough questions to pull my focus that I was always playing catch up. I followed several storylines, that while interesting, had little or nothing to do with Kuklinski and as a result I was shaking my head trying to figure out why the screenwriters chose to include those sense while leaving out other relevant lines that would have bolstered the film.
The screenplay overwhelms the senses with its gigantic timespan and subplots and leaves too many loose ends at its conclusion. But the film struggled to draw me completely in because of the multi-decade arcing story. It’s a strong character study of a man capable of coldly killing with little remorse or sense of compassion on Fridays, who can take his daughters to their dance recitals on Saturdays. The Iceman offers the dichotomy of Kuklinski: ruthless at work, loving and devoted at home.
Iceman killer actor movie#
Every so often a movie takes an alternative route ( The Departed) and focuses on a terse character driven drama that oozes tension and suspense.
Usually these duds are cheap knock offs, focusing on the action sequences, sex, and drug use but avoiding a story of any substance.
Iceman killer actor full#
Hollywood is full of gangster films, and most attempt to capitalize on past box office hits like The Godfather. Richard has to make some questionable decisions that will ultimately doom him but save the only thing that he holds dear: his family.
Iceman killer actor professional#
When he refuses to kill a teenage witness to a crime, his professional life spirals out of control and he struggles to keep his wife Deborah (Winona Ryder) and two teenage daughters, Anabel (McKaley Miller) and Betsy (Megan Sherrill), from getting caught in the crossfire. While the film offers a cast of dedicated character actors and a riveting concept, it tries to cover a lot of ground and leaves us with just a taste of the seedy mob business without ever diving fully in.īased on a true story, The Iceman follows Richard Kuklinski’s (Michael Shannon) balancing act of a life as a family man/ruthless killer that successfully manages to keep his personal life separate from his professional for several decades. Michael Shannon ( Man of Steel, Revolutionary Road, Boardwalk Empire) continues to add to his impressive list of fascinating character studies in The Iceman, a new biopic about a ruthless contract killer from up and coming writer/director Ariel Vromen ( Danika, RX).
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