| The Ice Harvest | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Harold Ramis |
| Produced by | Albert Berger Ron Yerxa |
| Screenplay by | Richard Russo Robert Benton |
| Based on | The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips |
| Starring | John Cusack Billy Bob Thornton Connie Nielsen Randy Quaid Oliver Platt |
| Distributed by | Focus Features |
| Release date(s) | September 3, 2005 (Deauville) November 25, 2005 |
| Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $16 million |
| Box office | $9,016,782 |
The Ice Harvest is a 2005 dark comedy/drama film directed by Harold Ramis and written by Richard Russo and Robert Benton, based on the novel of the same name by Scott Phillips. It stars John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen, Randy Quaid, and Oliver Platt. It is distributed by Focus Features, and the DVD was released on February 28, 2006.
Contents |
On Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas, mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) and crooked businessman and pornographer Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) gather together the $2 million dollars they have stolen from their mob boss Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid). While it initially appears that there will be an easy getaway for the pair, they learn that the roads in and out of the city are too icy to drive on. Vic takes the cash for safe-keeping and they split up and try their best to evade being captured by Guerrard and his men, who have discovered their scheme.
Charlie visits Sweet Cage, a local strip-club, owned by Renata Crest (Connie Nielsen), a woman whom Charlie has long lusted for, and she quickly deciphers that he's hiding something. He hints at the existence of the money, and she suggests they go off together. Before they can do that, however, she tasks Charlie to find an incriminating picture of a local politician, at a hotel. Charlie goes there and runs into his friend Pete (Oliver Platt), who is married to Charlie's beautiful ex-wife. Pete is very drunk, and tags along with Charlie for as long as it takes for Pete to pass out.
Charlie goes back to Renata and gives her the photo, and she tells him that Vic had called her earlier and said that Charlie had been right about mob enforcer Roy Gelles (Mike Starr) tailing the two of them. Charlie goes to Vic's house and finds Vic's wife dead. Vic arrives and reveals that he's locked Roy in an industrial trunk. The two stuff Roy, in the trunk, in Charlie's ex-wife's Mercedes (which Charlie borrows after Pete vomits in Charlie's Lincoln) and head for a local lake. On the way, Roy continues yelling at the two of them, and Vic gets annoyed and shoots at the trunk. Charlie and Vic get the trunk down to the dock, but it's shot open from the inside and Roy gets out, shooting Vic in the process. A shootout ensues, ending with Roy dead and Vic fallen into the frozen lake. Charlie realizes that Vic was going to kill Charlie and take the money for himself, and leaves Vic to die.
Returning to Sweet Cage, Charlie finds that Bill Guerrard himself has come and tied Renata up. Charlie finds a shotgun in the bar and turns it on Guerrard. Another shootout ensues, with Charlie being injured and Guerrard killed. Charlie and Renata go back to her house, and Charlie finds the money hidden there. It's revealed via flashback that Vic and Renata were planning to go off together after Vic had killed Charlie. Charlie kills Renata just before she can kill him.
Charlie and Pete then drive off together, deciding to make new names for themselves.
Frequent Harold Ramis collaborator Bill Murray was reportedly offered a role. Monica Bellucci was originally set to play the role of Renata, but had to leave due to her pregnancy. Ramis almost had to close production for a day due to the weather, which would have spoiled his tradition of never losing a shooting day.
The film is based on the Scott Phillips novel The Ice Harvest. Filming took place exclusively in Illinois, on a $16,000,000 budget.
The Ice Harvest grossed $US10,156,968, of which $US9,016,782 was from the United States.[1] It has a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[2]
James Bernadelli of ReelReviews gave the film 2 and a half stars out of four, saying, "Despite its brevity, it seems padded, with all sorts of irrelevant scenes and dead-end subplots taking up time. [...] Next time, Ramis should work to his strengths, and film noir isn't one of them. The Ice Harvest will have melted away long before the turkey leftovers are polished off."
Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and said: "I liked the movie for the quirky way it pursues humor through the drifts of greed, lust, booze, betrayal and spectacularly complicated ways to die. I liked it for Charlie's essential kindness, as when he pauses during a getaway to help a friend who has run out of gas. And for the scene-stealing pathos of Oliver Platt's drunk, who like many drunks in the legal profession achieves a rhetorical grandiosity during the final approach to oblivion. And I liked especially the way Roy, the man in the trunk, keeps on thinking positively, even after Vic puts bullets through both ends of the trunk because he can't remember which end of the trunk Roy's head is at. Maybe it's in the middle."
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