The Iceman (2012) or, Richard Kuklinsky: Coldhearted Mass Murderer

♥♥♥

Michael Shannon doesn't look like the kind of guy you'd normally want to share a dinner with on the poster for Ariel Vromen's The Iceman

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Polish-American Kuklinsky is a tightly wrought, uncharismatic man, who becomes a hitman for the mob over several years without his wife and two daughters suspecting anything.

Michael Shannon (They Came Together (2014)) gives an unadorned, strong performance as the title psychopath, who is unfortunately a killer without any redeeming qualities. Also for this reason his wife, portrayed by Winona Ryder (Girl, Interrupted (1999)), comes off as dumb and uninteresting. - What does she see in him?
Iceman is very unglamorous, almost uglified in its earthy, cold hues, and it is not a very compelling film. People die right and left, - only little else seems to be happening, really, - without it getting us to care much about the misdeeds regardless. SPOILER - Besides feeling that Kuklinsky deserves the punishment he finally receives.
Iceman features a star parade which unfortunately doesn't save it, and among them Stephen Dorff (Somewhere (2010)) is hard to swallow as Shannon's brother.
The Iceman is written by Morgan Land (Rx (2005)) and Israeli co-writer-director Ariel Vromen (Danika (2006)), based on Anthony Bruno's book The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer and Jim Thebaut's documentary The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer.
The Iceman story's biggest interest lies in the double life and compartmentalization of his two lives that Kuklinsky managed to hold up for years.

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: Estimated 10 mil. $
Box office: 4.4 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[The Iceman was shot in New York City, LA and Shreveport, Louisiana December 2011 - January 2012. It premiered at Telluride, was shown at Toronto and Venice International Film Festival, and never crossed 300 screens in North America, where it received mixed reviews and only grossed 1.9 mil. $ (43.2 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 0.8 mil. $ (18.2 %) and Hong Kong with 0.6 mil. $ (13.6 %). The Iceman is fresh at 66 % with a 6.2 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Iceman?