The Ice Harvest (2005) or, It's a Difficult Life

♥♥♥♥

 

Cut-outs of the three stars are obviously photo-shopped together on this poster for Harold Ramis' The Ice Harvest

A disillusioned lawyer and his cynical buddy steal 2 mil. $ in Wichita Falls, Kansas on a wet Christmas Eve, but after this feat they run into a series of problems.

 

The Ice Harvest is written by Robert Benton (Bonnie and Clyde (1967)) and Richard Russo (Twilight (1998)), adapting Scott Phillips' (The Devil Raises His Own (2024)) same-titled 2000 novel, and directed by Illinoisan master filmmaker Harold Ramis (Caddyshack (1980)), whose 10th feature it was.

It is a sardonic, dark Christmas movie with a fine, well-acting cast in a knotty plot with many funny, superbly delivered lines. John Cusack (Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)) is good as the protagonist, and Billy Bob Thornton (Bad Santa 2 (2016)) is ideal as the ornery prick he gets to play here. Oliver Platt (Modern Family (2015-17)) plays a character that's both funny and somewhat tragic. Connie Nielsen (FBI (2018, TV-series)) is beautiful and provides depth to boot; and Mike Starr (Clowning (2022)) is very funny in a part that goes mostly unseen.

The look of The Ice Harvest is sometimes film noir inspired, and quite successfully so. This is a dark, wet, cold, strip, liquor and curse-word filled dose of yo-ho-ho. The plot leaves some things for us to ponder about: SPOILER Worst among these instances must be that Cusack's character feels impelled to murder Nielsen's, - at least without me being fully clear about why this was necessary, - and then proceeding to be fairly unaffected by the action. But over-all The Ice Harvest is too funny for these holes to ruin the experience.

 

Related posts:

Harold Ramis: 1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Analyze This (1999) - Analyze what, Ramis? 

1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Top 10: Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Groundhog Day (1993) - Rubin, Ramis and Murray's irresistible comedy masterpiece 

Ghostbusters II (1989) - Reitman's unjustifiably maligned sequel (co-writer/co-star)

Ghostbusters (1984) - Reitman and Co. conjure up the gleeful pomp and circumstance of the 1980s (co-writer/co-star)

Caddyshack (1980) - And you thought golf was boring?

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 16 mil. $

Box office: 10.1 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.63 times its cost)

[The Ice Harvest premiered 3 September (Deauville Film Festival, France) and runs 89 minutes. Ramis approached his Ghostbusters co-star Bill Murray to star in the film, but Murray did not return his call. Monica Bellucci had to bow out due to her pregnancy. Shooting took place from April - June 2004 in Illinois. The film opened #10 to a 3.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, its peak there, grossing 9 mil. $ (89 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 599k $ (5.9 %) and France with 254k $ (2.5 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Ramis returned with Atlanta (2007, TV movie) and theatrically with Year One (2009). Cusack returned in The Contract (2006); Thornton in School for Scoundrels (2006); and Nielsen in The Situation (2006). The Ice Harvest is rotten at 47 % with a 5.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Ice Harvest?

Little Children (2006) - Field's second film is a great, scathing adaptation about middle class suburbanites

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Feel-Bad Movie of the Year

Intense darkness and the naked bodies of two of the film's stars, with a drop of sweat on Patrick Wilson's torso, indicates both something dark and sensual on this poster for Todd Field's Little Children

A pent-up, unhappy housewife has an affair with the prom king of her high school days, while a flasher moves into her suburban neighborhood.

Little Children is written by great co-writer/co-producer/director Todd Field (In the Bedroom (2001)) and Tom Perrotta (The Leftovers (2011), novel), based on his same-titled 2004 novel. It is Field's 2nd theatrical feature. It is a very fine film about miserable 'little children' (adults, really) of suburbia.
Little Children is extremely well-written, directed, acted and shot (by Antonio Calvache (Sleeping Luck (2003))).
Kate Winslet (Iris (2001)) plays the unresolved wife and mother character that she has portrayed well in other films as well. The sex offender is played phenomenally by Jackie Earle Haley (All the King's Men (2006)).
The themes and feelings stirred by the film are so related to those from Sam Mendes' modern classic American Beauty (1999), - the film's composer Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks (2013)) was also contracted and made the score for Little Children, - and the similarities may explain why Little Children wasn't nearly as successful as American Beauty, even though it may be a tiny bit better.
This love-themed drama is for the most part a depressing time, which I write in the best possible way.

Related posts:

 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 26 mil. $
Box office: 14.8 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.56 times the cost)
[Little Children premiered 1 September (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 137 minutes. Field and Perrotta have reportedly deliberately changed the film's story to some degree from the one in the novel. Shooting took place in Boston, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Maine, California and New Jersey from July - September 2005. It opened #42 to a 97k $ opening weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #27 and in 115 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 5.4 mil. $ (36.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 1.1 mil. $ (7.4 %) and the UK with 0.8 mil. $ (5.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to two notches harder than this one. The film was nominated for 3 Oscars: Best Actress (Winslet), lost to Helen Mirren in The Queen), Supporting Actor (Haley), lost to Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine, and Adapted Screenplay, lost to William Monahan for The Departed. It was also nominated for 3 Golden Globes and received many other honors. Field has yet to return as a director: He has pursued a now abandoned war drama titled America's Last Prisoner of War, and is set to direct for the Daniel Craig-starring TV-series Purity; he is also pursuing adaptation The Creed of Violence. Winslet returned in All the King's Men (2006), Jennifer Connelly (Noah (2014)) in Blood Diamond (2006), and Patrick Wilson (Fargo (2015), TV-series) in Running with Scissors (2006). Little Children is certified fresh at 80 % with a 7.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Little Children?

Ruby Sparks (2012) - Dayton & Farris' high concept romcom failure

♥♥

 

An effective, well-made poster for Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris' Ruby Sparks

 

A successful, lonely writer with writer's block completes an assignment for his shrink and in doing so creates the fictional female character of his  dreams in reality!

Ruby Sparks has its moderately funny patches, but this basically high-concept romcom has perched itself wrong; on the low-budget-quirky-indie chair, - replete with discordant, foreign language music and an eccentric parent couple, - instead of a higher chair, the mainstream approach. It is also problematic that the protagonist's writing issues take up as much space in the film as they do. It is fundamentally hard to get genuinely interested in this character, the central rock of Ruby Sparks, and the affluent Los Angeles milieu he resides in. To make matters worse, the film isn't romantic, because the titular character isn't a real person in the film but only a figment of the writer's imagination.

Paul Dano (L.I.E. (2001)) attempts to pull up the funny factor but spends the majority of the film looking like an owl. Zoe Kazan (Meek's Cutoff (2010)), who also wrote the film, her first and only movie writing job to date, is sweet enough as Ruby Sparks, but the film is regrettably failed. It is directed by great Californian directors and marrieds Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Farris (Little Miss Sunshine (2006)).

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 8 mil. $

Box office: 9.1 mil. $

= Big flop

[Ruby Sparks was released July 25 and runs 104 minutes. Filming took place in LA and Big Sur, California from July - August 2011. The film opened #28 to a 140k $ opening weekend in 13 theaters, expanding to 261 and #17, grossing 2.5 mil. $ (27.5 % of the total gross) in North America. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 1.6 mil. $ (17.6 %) and the UK with 1.2 mil. $ (13.2 %). Ruby Sparks is certified fresh at 79 % with a 7.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ruby Sparks?