The Iceman

A life of crime. Are some people genetically predisposed to crime or is it all about choices?

In this hard hitting drama, we follow the rise and fall of Richard Kuklinski played utterly convincingly by Michael Shannon. The man who terrorised many, yet he was a faithful and devoted dad and husband where the constant struggle is shown in keeping the balance between a life of crime and family harmony.

One scene I find particularly mesmerising is when he visits his brother in prison and as he is about to leaves his brother shouts that since are both born criminals they shall both end up in jail.

Kudos to the makers for conveying tension and emotion in the correct dose. My only remark would be that it kind of lost its way between being a crime drama and autobiography, however whilst it successfully is a bit of both, I sort of craved it picked a genre and dig a little deeper.

The Iceman a biopic based on New Jersey hit-man Richard Kuklinski who managed to murder at least 100 and possibly up to 250 victims in a span of almost 40 years.

Michael Shannon giving a strong performance as the hit-man with the calculating and creepy demeanor of a psychopathic killer with no conscience who can still flip the switch back to his life in the suburbs with wife and kids. Yet a shade of subtlety and pathos in his portrayal of Kuklinski that we can actually identify and take some interest in his struggles. With the exception of Winona Ryder who fits seamlessly as naive suburban housewife (and the 2 daughters) very unlikely to feel sympathy for the victims with the exception of one senseless killing. Mostly wiseguys, mostly scumbags. We're not all that mad at Kuklinski for the nasty stuff he's doing.

Ray Liotta a can't miss as a minor mob boss, all the acting first rate and the characters real. But the Iceman story is told without ice and without chasers, a gangster flick without sentiments real or phony thrown in. Viewers hoping to draw insights or conclusions from all the dead bodies might end up disappointed. The 'Iceman' moniker from his practice of freezing bodies to confuse the time of death.

My biggest question for Kuklinski would be, how do you get away with so many murders, so many different methods, places, people over a span of almost 40 years? In the true crime shows the perp makes one little slip in his only perfect crime and ends up in the slam.

The movie is what it is because I don't think there's all that much complex or new in a Kuklinski to learn. Abused growing up, turns to sociopathic super bully behavior as an adult to get what he wants and to survive. No genius but smart enough to know when to turn it down out in the suburbs. Kuklinski was an usher at mass every Sunday. They should have included that in the movie.

With 2011's Take Shelter, Michael Shannon is proving to be a fascinating leading man. Just through his presence, he can convey that unstable line between sanity and insanity and bad and good. You can just tell his inner conflict is going to explode at boiling point. It's unfortunate that while Shannon certainly transforms into the 'iceman,' The Iceman's script doesn't call for much of his range. Instead, it's a moody gangster film that revels in the moments where it can step just beyond the clichés while still pressing all the standard buttons. It's interesting in these kinds of scenes where a mob boss forces an associate to give to a homeless person or Shannon lets James Franco's cameo pray to God just to see what happens. It's a well-acted film, particularly Winona Ryder standing out in the supporting cast and it's very slickly made. But the fundamental problem with the film is its rhythm. The editing is constantly hectic even at the smallest things. There's no natural fluctuations that give emotional moments gravitas or action moments excitement. It does end up fatiguing and it lessens the sense of journey and change. Nevertheless, it's still a wickedly entertaining thrill ride to the end, just blunt at its edges.

7/10

Wow!! What a great feature film for Michael Shannon to display his range of acting and depth of character portrayal as the real New Jersey contract (serial?) killer, Richard Kuklinski. Michael Shannon has played dark brooding characters before such as in his roles in movies like My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, as Brad McCullum, The Man of Steel as General Zod, and in Take Shelter as the father Curtis LaForche, of a family who believe his fixation on building an underground shelter is too extreme. He also plays a dark brooding character in Boardwalk Empire, whose role evolves from a former Prohibition Agent on the run after murdering his partner, to the muscle for a bootlegger. In my watching Michael Shannon evolve as an actor over the past 20 years of film making, I believe he has found his true calling in the mobster/crime genre.

The supporting cast is very strong with Winona Ryder playing the feeble Deborah Kuklinski, the wife of Richard Kuklinski. In actual life Richard and Deborah Kuklinski had two daughters and one son. The movie however depicts the Kuklinski's as only raising two daughters. The reason for this deviation in art imitating life may be to reveal a more softer, caring husband and father Richard Kuklinski, doting over the three women in his life. Which brings me to what I believe the director Ariel Vromen was looking to achieve with this film. Ariel Vromen was on record in stating that after he watched the real Richard Kuklinski HBO documentary The Iceman Tapes: Conversations With A Killer that he "was so amazed by the story that he actually liked Richard Kuklinski and had empathy and sympathy for him."

Some movie goers will not appreciate the lack of gratuitous violence that would have been expected from the real contract killer Richard Kuklinski. So if you are expecting to see a very violent and physical Richard Kuklinski character, the director Ariel Vromen has purposely excluded the violent bloody side of the actual vicious killings of Richard Kuklinski displayed in other movies like Goodfellas, or the Godfather.

Another strong performance was displayed by Ray Liotta who portrays Roy DeMeo a loan shark and drug pusher who is trying to control Richard Kulkinski as his own killing machine. Robert Davi as the middle man between the real mob bosses and Roy DeMeo who wanted more recognition from the mob was well done. Davi, only has a few scenes in the movie, but each of his scenes is significant for the historical references that unfold. Totally away from the humorous character David Schwimmer is known for in the TV series Friends, as Ross Geller, Schwimmer does an excellent job playing Josh Rosenthal, a henchman for mobster Roy DeMeo.

Chris Evans portrayal of Robert Pronger, aka Mr. Freezy, was eerily real to character and a very creative role. He plays a lone wolf who mentors the Iceman and exposes Richard Kuklinski on more practical ways to murder people. Again, the gratuitous violence is very soft core of these two contract killers who are displayed cutting up body parts and loading them in to walk in freezers. The movie is less than two hours long and to capture approximately 30 years of Kuklinski's rampage is difficult to say the least, so I appreciated that the director chose to focus on Richard Kuklinski's multiple characters as the devoted family man. cold blooded killer and lack of emotion or fear, due to flashbacks of his own early childhood abuse at the hands of his father. Stephen Dorff plays Richard's brother Joseph, who true to life was serving a life time term for raping then throwing a teenage girl to her death off the top of a roof. Richard and his brother Joseph were not close in real life and when they were both imprisoned in the same cell block they merely shrugged shoulders towards each other in passing. Why? The real Richard Kuklinski felt his only true family was his children and wife, as portrayed by director Arial Vromer's The Iceman.

This is a must see for any enthusiasts of the real criminal world true stories. It boasts a seasoned group of veteran actors who shared the screen with star Michael Shannon. It is two hours of excellent historical reference minus much of the bloodshed and violence one can see in any one of thousands of B movies if this is what you really want to see.

The Iceman was an enjoyable movie with very good acting, but ultimately quite unrealistic.

The Iceman, Richard Kuklinski, comes off as a very sympathetic character in the end, whereas in real life he truly was a cold emotionless and sociopathic killer. His family weren't so much cherished and loved as they were possessions that were his and his alone.

Much has been learned about sociopathy by interviewing Kuklinski, but unfortunately none of this was used to shape and portray his real character in the movie. Nonetheless, the movie is worth seeing, but more as entertainment than enlightenment about Kuklinski's life of crime.