Ice Harvest

By: debbie lynn elias

John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton team up (who’da thunk it) under the direction of Harold Ramis for one of the quirkiest holiday films around. (Come on! It’s stars Billy Bob. It’s GOT to be quirky.) After “Badder Santa” and now “The Ice Harvest”, looks like Billy Bob may be on his way to becoming a holiday tradition! And keeping in the line of “Badder Santa”, we’ve got a little Christmas Eve heist going down.

Wichita, Kansas mob lawyer Charlie Arglist and porno prince Vic Cavanaugh want a little Christmas gift of their own. Tired of doing the bidding of others (and on an egomaniacal role that would put your average trial attorney to shame) the two get the not-so-bright idea of robbing Charlie’s Mafia master and strip club owner, Bill Guerrard, of $2 million dollars. Charlie is self-absorbed in his own pity party – he’s divorced, his ex-wife is married to his best friend, he’s lonely, his kid hates him and he has no morals or ethics left, giving him the perfect mindset of “so what.” To him, it doesn’t matter one way or another what he does as he can no longer see the ramifications of his actions; plus, he is certain he has masterminded the perfect crime and he’ll never get caught. (Whoa! Sounds like my ex-boyfriend! Are you reading LAPD?) Vic on the other hand is, well. . .a strip club manager. The plan. Simple – skim the money off the take on Christmas Eve. Well planned? I think not.

Things get more than a little slippery for our dastardly duo, however causing Charlie’s veneer to crumble, plans to change and Vic to, well, just be Vic. And as if that’s not enough, not only does Guerrard know what the two have done and is handling the situation in what could be described as Jimmy Hoffa-like fashion, one local cop with aspirations beyond a town like Wichita also knows. Despite this knowledge, however, what is of greater concern is not the crime but Charlie’s connections which lead our good officer to “look the other way.” And just for good measure, let’s toss in some seductive strippers, Charlie’s drunken best friend Pete (who he ends up baby-sitting) and Charlie becoming “Nervous-Nellie” as he hops from strip club to strip club waiting for the night to end, the roads to thaw and a plane to take him to warmer climates.

John Cusack is simply delicious as Charlie. With his patented Lloyd Dobbler countenance laced with acrid sarcasm and single-purposed freneticism, Cusack once again shows us acting the way acting was meant to be. He is riveting, intensely driven and intensely funny all at the same time.

And talk about perfect casting – Billy Bob Thornton as Vic. Who else but Billy Bob could put a distasteful criminal twist on the holidays with rewarding results? Who else could elicit peels of laughter after his character nonchalantly kills his wife, can’t fit the dead body in the trunk of the car and complains that “she never could do anything right.” To see it is to believe it. Absolutely hysterical!! Randy Quaid, who could rival Billy Bob for satisfyingly sleazy performances, is ideal as mob boss Guerrard, while one of my all time favorites Oliver Platt steals the thunder from under Cusack every chance he gets with his take on Charlie’s best friend Pete. Giving new meaning and interpretation to “drunken fool”, he should be a shoe-in for an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor. Think “The Four Musketeers” meets “Bulworth” meets “Executive Decision” and you’ve got the perfect picture of Platt’s Pete. For the female touch, kudos to veteran comedienne Connie Nielsen as the oh-so-sexy strip club manager Renata. With the only major female role in this male-dominated stag party, she more than handles her own up against this motley crew of males.

Directed by Harold Ramis, the comedy is blacker than any lump of coal you’ll ever find in your stocking come Christmas morning. Well crafted and told with a matter-of-fact sense of realism, Ramis caters to the story and the actors with a style of old-fashioned directing that makes you feel comfortable watching the movie, even as the sarcasm devilishly spins and spirals into places one wouldn’t normally dare to go. Toss in winter’s night pelted by a freezing rain and superior lensing by cinematographer Alar Kivilo, and you find yourself mesmerized with the story and the characters, just wanting to curl up by a fire and watch to see how this all plays out during the night.

But Ramis couldn’t have done such a brilliant job without the work of scribes Richard Russo and Robert Benton. Based on the novel by Scott Phillips, these two have taken deadpan sarcasm to a new level with divine results and a little moral reahabilitation. But what makes this film works so well is their ability to establish histories among the characters without having a backstory or lengthy set-up. Again, we go to that word “comfortable.” Pivotal snippets of dialogue and character interaction are all that’s needed to satisfy the viewer. You won’t find yourself asking “who are they” and “where did they come from” with this film.

And what would a Christmas film be without a bit of holiday music. Chock full of yuletide spirit with those Christmas classics we’ve all come to know, love or plug our ears for, the shining star here for me has got to be Alvin and the Chipmunks. How can any film not ring of Christmas cheer when you’re listening to Alvin?

Charlie Arglist: John Cusack Vic Cavanaugh: Billy Bob Thornton Peter van Heuten: Oliver Platt Bill Guerrard: Randy Quaid Renata: Connie Neilsen

Directed by Harold Ramis. Written by Richard Russo and Robert Benton based on the novel by Scott Phillips. A Focus Features release. Rated R. (88 min)