The Ice Harvest

What better place to set an edgy, dark comedy than on an
icy, rainy Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas?

THE ICE HARVEST features a nice comedic ensemble cast:
John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Randy Quaid, Oliver
Platt, and Connie Nielsen (Gladiator).

Plus it is directed by the great Harold Ramis (Groundhog
Day, Analyze This, Multiplicity, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters).

On this cloudy, cold, drizzly Christmas Eve, Charlie
(Cusack) and Vic (Thornton), steal $2 million from Charlie's
boss Bill Guerrard (Quaid). Charlie is a mob lawyer,
who is the brains behind the theft. Vic owns a nudie
bar called Tease'O'Rama, and he is the guts behind the
operation.

They plan on leaving early Christmas morning for Kansas
City, where they will fly off to someplace warm and
divide the money.

They think they have pulled off the perfect crime until
Roy, one of Bill's henchmen, starts lurking around searching
for Charlie.

Mix in Renata (Nielsen), a femme fatale with questionable
motives, who Charlie has a thing for.

Vic and Charlie have to wait out the night, lay low,
and pretend that everything is normal, while concealing
their crime, and dodging various characters, from the
police, to the people looking for them and the stolen
money.

The most blatant comedy relief comes from Oliver Platt's
character, Pete Van Heuten, who is married to Charlie's
ex-wife. His drunk bumbling lightens up the film a lot.

This is most definitely a retro film noir, with seedy
bars, dark alleys, and things going wrong at every turn.
Not to mention the issues of trust between the main
characters, a noir staple. With a crime that appears
to have gone perfectly and the unraveling that follows.

I loved the gray atmospheric tone and the entrapping
freezing rain.

Not for the faint-of-heart.