Just like how my expectations for The Iceman were lowered based on its director, Ariel Vromen’s film – Criminal (2016) which was a sad mess of a movie – I thought I would not enjoy The Iceman. However, unlike Criminal, The Iceman stars my favorite actors Michael Shannon and Ray Liotta. Watching them on screen is always a treat, even when the script is mundane.
In the film, Kuklinski’s character, played by Shannon, is based on a true story of Richard Kuklinski. In the beginning, he is on a date with Debbie, played by Winona Ryder. As he is getting to know her, he forgets to mention that he works as a mobster’s porn movie voice over actor. Things turn dark when the crime syndicate, led by Roy DeMeo (played by Ray Liotta), shuts down the business and gives Kuklinski the chance to try out as a contract killer by murdering a homeless man. After being incarcerated, the real Kuklinski claimed to have raised a family and killed over 200 men while still married to Deborah. It is shocking to think that she and their children had no idea of his real job until he was arrested in 1986.
From the book The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer by Anthony Bruno, along with Arthur Ginsberg’s 2001 The Iceman Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hitman, The Iceman encapsulates the 60s and 70s setting of the story quite accurately. My mother often cautioned me about ice cream truck drivers during those years because she strongly believed that they could be drug dealers, a notion that is more than validated by the sleazy Robert ‘Mr. Freezy’ Pronge (Chris Evans) character. He’s a long haired hitman who drives an ice cream truck. ‘Mr. Freezy’ lives up to his name and shows Kuklinski how to ‘freeze’ murdered victims which makes it difficult for coroners to ascertain the time of death, leading to his nickname, Iceman.
There are some actors whose talents bring me pleasure, so much so that I would endure watching them in bad movies (such as John Huston in Tentacles). Michael Shannon and Ray Liotta fall into this category. Having watched Shannon in the Sitting on Top of the World (1998), I’m well aware of his range, but ever greater depth still eludes him due to the script by Ariel Vroomed and Morgan Land (check out his more subtle, but volatile role in Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road, or Shannon’s ferocious turn as a bootlegging Prohibition Agent in Boardwalk Empire). Conversely, The Iceman literally speaks for himself. It is calm, cool, and collected with no remorse, as his family pays the price for his “success.”
This film in particular makes me reflect on the sheer quantity of amazing actors that aren’t getting enough screen time these days. After the critically acclaimed debut of Ray Liotta in Jonathan Demmes’ 1986 Something Wild, one would think he would be a major movie star by now, but he has been unfortunately underused in feature films. It was also great to see the very talented Winona Ryder again, who has been severely underused in big movies. As usual, she plays the gullible Deborah Kuklinski effortlessly, though she does have an ongoing role in the hit series Stranger Things.
The Iceman would have benefited from a more nuanced and detailed interaction between Kuklinski and Liotta’s Roy Demo, who slowly disappears from the picture before the climax of the movie. To be honest, maybe the script has its flaws because of the lack of time within feature films. One can envision having so much more scope for character and story development had The Iceman been a television series or even a miniseries. That, however, does not excuse poor writing.
The Iceman features also James Franco and David Schwimmer as murder victims and Stephen Dorf as Kuklinski’s brother Joseph, the rapist and murderer (both siblings were savagely beaten as children by their dad).
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