The Ice Harvest

Plot synopsis:
At mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas, mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) and crooked businessman and pornographer Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) steal over $2 million from their mob boss Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid). While it appears there will be an easy getaway for the pair, they learn the roads out of town 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. She is upset because a new law will prevent strip clubs from operating after the first of the year. In response to Charlie's advances, she tasks him with bringing her an existing compromising picture, taken of a local crusading politician, so that she can use it to blackmail him to keep her club in business. She hints that she might respond favorably to Charlie's sexual desire if he helps her with this. Before he leaves the club, Charlie sees someone looking for him. He hides in the bathroom, where "As Wichita Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls" is written on the walls. He manages to evade the hulking man because Sidney, the bartender, lies and tells him that Charlie already left. Once the man leaves, a panicked Charlie calls Vic to warn him, but Vic dismisses his concerns.
Charlie drives to another strip club owned by Guerrard to remove the photo from the backroom safe. Before he gets there, his car skids on ice and he is stopped by Officer Tyler, who asks Charlie to remember him to his boss, Guerrard. Charlie promises to do so, but then can't remember the man's name a minute later. At the second club, he is unexpectedly nice to a stripper, and the bartender there takes note of that. While Charlie is in the back stealing the photograph, the menacing man shows up again, once again demanding to know if Charlie has been there. Once again, the bartender lies for Charlie and he's again able to evade capture. Once he leaves, a now very panicked Charlie rushes out with his phone open to call Vic again, but slips on the ice and breaks his phone.
Charlie drives to a restaurant to meet with Vic in person instead, and Vic assures him things will be okay. While they're talking, Vic gets a phone call from someone and tells Charlie it's his overweight wife asking when he'll be home. Vic leaves, but before Charlie can go, the bar manager asks Charlie to take care of Pete (Oliver Platt), Charlie's old and now very drunk friend. Pete is married to Charlie's beautiful ex-wife Sarabeth. Charlie takes Pete to the home of Pete's current in-laws where his children and Sarabeth are having dinner with her parents. It's clear that Pete doesn't want to go in, and is unhappy with his new marriage to Charlie's ex-wife. While still outside the house, he drunkenly confesses to Charlie that he and Sarabeth were constantly "fucking everywhere" while she was still married to Charlie. Pete asks Charlie if that makes him angry, and Charlies replies, "Actually, it makes me curious. Makes me wonder who she's fucking now." Once inside, Pete acts out, cursing and saying terrible things about both his wife and his in-laws. Charlie attempts to talk to his children, but is met with open hostility from his older son for not being more involved in their lives. Finally Sarabeth's mother tells him to leave, and take Pete with him. So Pete and Charlie go back to the restaurant they'd left earlier, and ask the bartender for one more drink. She agrees to give them each one for free if they will drink it and then leave. Charlie calls the Sweet Cage looking for Renata while Pete makes drunken sexual comments to the bartender, despite the fact that her boyfriend is waiting there for her to close. The boyfriend eventually throws him out of the restaurant and then kicks him in the scrotum. Pete vomits in Charlie's car, Officer Tyler shows up again, and Charlie drives Pete home (which was previously Charlie's house), where Pete passes out. Charlie "borrows" Sarabeth's new Mercedes (which was a gift from Pete) from the garage.
Charlie goes back to Sweet Cage to find Sidney the bartender beating up a guitar player. Renata has returned, so he gives her the photo. Based on Charlie's kindness to the stripper at the other club and his refusal to demand anything in return for the valuable photo, Renata deduces that Charlie is hiding something. He hints at the existence of money, and she suggests they go off together. Before they can do that, however, she tells him that Vic had called her earlier to say Charlie had been right about mob enforcer Roy Gelles (Mike Starr) looking for the two of them, and that Charlie needs to go meet with Vic at The Velvet Touch while she closes her bar.
Charlie goes to The Velvet Touch and finds a severed human thumb in the back room. He drives to a bridge to be sick, and is once again spotted by Officer Tyler, whose name he still can't remember. He heads to Vic's house and sees a gun go off through the window. He breaks into the other car in Vic's driveway and finds ID belonging to Roy, so he assumes that Roy just killed Vic. He calls Renata to tell her so, and she encourages him to take Roy out and get the money from him so they can run off together. She encourages him to make this his "defining moment" to be "something more." Charlie goes into Vic's house, finds Vic's wife newly dead and is then startled by Vic himself. Vic tells him that Roy shot his wife, but that he managed to lock Roy up in a trunk. After an argument about which car would hold the two bodies best, the two of them stuff the trunk with Roy inside it into the back seat of Sarabeth's Mercedes, and the corpse of Vic's wife's into the trunk, then head for a local lake. On the way, Roy continues talking to the two of them, telling Charlie Vic killed his own wife, and that he's going to kill Charlie too. Vic berates Charlie for "being nice" on Christmas Eve, saying it's a dead giveaway that he's planning to leave town, then gets annoyed with Roy's talking and shoots into the trunk, which becomes quiet. Charlie and Vic get the trunk down onto a dock at the lake, but it's shot open from the inside and Roy gets out, shooting Vic in the process. Vic shoots Roy dead, but then falls into the frozen lake. Vic begs for help, but Charlie realized that Roy was right, and Vic was planning to kill him once they got the bodies into the lake, and then take the money for himself. He dumps Vic's wife's body on Vic, telling him, "I don't want you to die alone," and leaves Vic to die, still pleading to be saved. But then Charlie discovers the duffel bag in the car does not have the money in it, and that he doesn't know where the money actually is (and with Vic dead, has no way of figuring that out), so he gets drunk. He calls Renata and tells her what has happened, but she asks him to come to her despite not having the money. When Charlie hangs up the phone, it is revealed that someone is pointing a gun at her.
First Charlie heads back to his old house and delivers some very cheap Christmas gifts to his children, leaving them under the tree. Pete is still passed out there, and wakes up to beg Charlie to take him with him when he leaves town. Returning to Sweet Cage, Charlie discovers Bill Guerrard's car in the parking lot. He goes inside just as Guerrard is in the bathroom, to discover Renata tied to a chair. She has just enough time to tell him where a shotgun is hidden before Guerrard emerges from the bathroom, not seeing that Charlie has arrived. Charlie manages to fetch the double-barreled shotgun from behind the bar, and Guerrard discusses the situation with Renata, surmising it was really she who designed the plan, as Vic was too dumb and Charlie too cowardly to pull it off without her encouragement. Charlie returns and points the gun at Guerrard, but Guerrard just taunts him. At Renata's urging, Charlie fires the gun, but it is loaded with birdshot and only superficially wounds him. As Charlie starts to cut Renata loose, Charlie is stabbed in the foot by a recovered Guerrard. Officer Tyler, making his rounds, hears the gunshot and arrives but Guerrard shoots him dead. Renata frees herself and stabs Guerrard in the chest. A struggle ensues, and Charlie manages to kill Guerrard with a second shot to the back of the head at point blank range.
While Renata cleans Guerrard's blood off of herself, Charlie tends to his wounds and suddenly sees Vic's duffel bag containing the money in Renata's open closet. Flashing back, he realizes Renata is the one Vic was having dinner with earlier, and that he and Renata were planning to go off together after Vic had killed him. Renata emerges from the bathroom acting as if she is going to seduce Charlie. As they embrace, Charlie shoots Renata with Guerrad's gun just before she can kill him with a concealed razor she brought out of the bathroom.
On Christmas morning, a sad Charlie drives out of town with the money. He finds Sidney with his kids on the side of the road in a camper-motor home, on their way to Six Flags. They are stalled because the camper has run out of gas. Charlie lets Sidney siphon some gas from his tank and Sidney tells him that Charlie's the nicest guy he knows. Charlie says he's "awfully sorry to hear that." They wish each other well, but Sidney's motor won't immediately start. Before he drives off, Charlie pulls a red Sharpie from his pocket and begins to write "As Wichita Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls" on the back of the camper. Based on the handwriting and the ink color, it's implied that he was the one writing this phrase all over town the entire time. Not seeing Charlie back there, Sidney accidentally backs into him, knocking him to the ground. Charlie picks himself up and gets back in the Mercedes, where Pete is revealed to have been lying in the back seat the entire time. He has at last awoken from his stupor, and wants to know where he is. Charlie tells him he's in Heaven. They wish each other "Merry Christmas" and drive off to a new and different future.

Tags: comedy, neo noir, philosophical, murder, flashback

Review:
He just happens to be a Witchita attorney for a Kansas City political boss.The film begins when Charlie Arglist (Cusack), with over two million in stolen cash, jumps into the car with partner-in-crime Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton).
Throughout the evening Charlie encounters strip club owner Renata (Connie Nielsen) and drunken colleague Pete Van Heuten (Oliver Platt, his fist scene-stealer in a number of years).The character of Pete offers some great comic relief to the story.
And bit player Ned Bellamy, cast as a strip club bouncer with Mom issues adds some fine scenes.This is about the most straight-forward "noir" I've seen since Lawrence Kasdan's "Body Heat," but as directed by Ramis, it feels slightly like a Coen brothers movie, with the occasional comic twists to the genre, and the casting choices of Thornton ("The Man Who Wasn't There") and Starr ("Miller's Crossing").It's not the best movie of the year.
The Ice Harvest is attractive to two audiences, those being the film noir and/or crime fans and the people who think a movie with Cusack and Thornton directed by ex-Ghostbuster Ramis is going to be a mishap-riddled caper comedy.
The good news is that he pulls it off very well.The Ice Harvest happens to be one of the movies I watch at Christmastime, because the film is actually so well-directed and so well-shot that it captures that constantly sought-after perfect cozy winter atmosphere on film.
No matter how much time it spends during the outlandish drunken bouts of Oliver Platt or the destructive tantrums of Ned Bellamy's overaggressive bartender, The Ice Harvest never breaks its meticulous feeling and image for one moment.Even though it's not what is expected by the vast majority of those who have seen it or those who mean to, it does have impressionistic characteristics of those expectations that deliver sensationally, such as Thornton's tremendously entertaining time on screen and the thicket of distrust that ushers in over the course of the holidays succeeding his and Cusack's so-called perfect crime.
Really, the essence of the story lies in Cusack's descent into complete detachment from any virtue in life, feeling as if he's only an observer when encountering darkly humorous yet brooding things over his Christmas.The Ice Harvest is not really a comedy and not really a film noir.
'The Ice Harvest' looked very entertaining from it's previews and starred a talented group of actors including John Cusack (Grosse Point Blank), Billy Bob Thorton (Bad Santa), Connie Nielsen (Gladiator), the hilarious Randy Quaid (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) and the even more hilarious Oliver Platt (Showtime's 'Huff').
THE ICE HARVEST (TIH), another quirky triumph from Focus Features, should really be sold as a thriller with darkly comedic undertones a la FARGO rather than a comedy with thriller elements a la GROSSE POINTE BLANK (even though John Cusack looks remarkably like he did in GPB here).
The suspenseful yet surreally funny Kansas-set story of nervous Mob lawyer John Cusack teaming up with laid-back yet ruthless Billy Bob Thornton to steal over $2 million from Cusack's boss Randy Quaid, only to find themselves stuck in Wichita by an ice storm and all manner of goof-ups and goofballs, with a hit man on their tail to-boot, TIH tells its twisted tale as if my fave thriller author Jim Thompson (THE GRIFTERS, THE GETAWAY, POP.
Life becomes more complicated as the night goes on and Charlie meets up again with Vic. More twists and surprises follow.I almost didn't go to this movie, because the teaser for the Austin Film Festival made it look like a Cusack-Thornton buddy movie, and I'm tired of the character Thornton keeps playing.
Connie Nielsen, Billy Bob Thornton, Randy Quaid, and Oliver Platt all turn in perfectly tuned performances, but Cusack, with his low-key, mesmerizing timing, is the center.Anyway, if you're looking for a fast-moving comedy, look elsewhere.
It's been a while since I've seen such a successful mixture of black comedy and film-noir/thriller.Charlie (John Cusack), a Kansas attorney on the verge of a burn-out, and his associate Vic (Billy Bob Thornton) have just stolen 2 million $ from their boss on Christmas Eve. They're planning on leaving that same night to enjoy their money elsewhere.
John Cusack fails to give a performance that would generate any great interest or sympathy, and Oliver Platt gives a performance that is awful, studied, and unfunny, pretty much ruining any chance of the film being particularly good.
The writing is enough to betray Lara Phillips and Billy Bob Thornton (who seems to do every caper film these days, good or bad) without any help from the actors, because their characters are completely predictable.I have little else to say here about it.
I went to see a preview of The Ice Harvest last night, and knew nothing about the movie except for the stars John Cusak, (who I like very much) and Billy Bob Thorton.
One of Harold Ramis' better efforts as a director, with understated performances by Billy Bob Thornton, John Cusack, and Connie Nielsen, all working off a script by Oscar winner Robert Benton and Emmy nominee Richard Russo.
John Cusack stars as Charlie Arglist, a morally compromised lawyer who has joined with strip club owner Vic Cavenaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) to steal 2 million dollars from a local mob boss, and black comedy hilarity ensues.
This movie is pretty funny, as I have always been a fan of the main actors in this movie (Billy Bob Thornton, John Cusack and Oliver Platt).
"The Ice Harvest" is about a man named Charlie (John Cusack) who has decided to rob his boss on Christmas Eve. Charlie along with his partner Vic (Billy Bob Thornton) plan to spend the last night in Wichita saying good bye to their family and friends and then leaving the next morning to begin a new life.
It's a pretty entertaining flick for its small target audience and is differently a different type of movie for its lead star John Cusack and its director Harold Ramis.MovieManMenzel's final rating for "The Ice Harvest" is a 7/10.
Even though the "Analyze This" films were about the mafia, I wouldn't go as far as calling them "dark comedies." "The Ice Harvest" is at times a bit too low-key, but those who don't have the attention span of a three-year-old shouldn't mind.
Platt's comic turn as an unhappy husband who imbibes a little too much Christmas Eve liquor is the perfect spoil to Cusack's wry, bland ex husband.Connie Nielsen is understated as the Veronica Lake like strip club manager and is enticing and throaty.Billy Bob Thornton is brutally funny as Cusack's sidekick in embezzlement.Twists and turns along the way keep the movie going and you'll never check your watch.A Must See that I'll be seeing again!.
In Wichita, in the Christmas Eve, the coward and smart mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) associates to the small time crook pornographer Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) and embezzles more than two million dollars of the powerful mobster Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid).
Along the long night, Charlie discloses secrets about Vic and Renata."The Ice Harvest" is a sort of blending of film-noir with black comedy that unfortunately does not work well in spite of having a great cast.
I love the director (Harold Ramis) and cast (John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Platt, Randy Quaid, et al.) and the premise (stealing from the mob).Sitting through this movie, I kept wondering when it was going to start getting good.
Once in a while, however, some unexpected, relatively unknown film just grabs you and holds you to the screen with a tightly-constructed plot and wonderful sense of character; such a film is The Ice Harvest.This is a crime thriller set in a seedy milieu at Christmas time, like glittering diamonds in the trash, and it's a heist film--but the money has already been stolen when the film begins--what follows is a struggle between a batch of not exactly admirable characters to see who gets to keep the cash--at times zany, frequently gruesome, but always fascinating, I found this to be highly entertaining--and with Cusack, Thornton, and Oliver Platt interacting, it's hard to go wrong..
Black comedy is at its finest in Ivan Reitman's "The Ice Harvest." Mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) decides one day to steal 2 million dollars from his boss, Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid).
But with the mob now on their tail, they're having problems with trusting people in their community and problems trusting each other.With Charlie trying to seduce Renata (Connie Nielsen), a stripper who is not as trustworthy as she seems and trying to keep control of Pete (Oliver Platt), his ex-wife's new husband who's trying to reach the "perfect stage of drunkness", Wichita turns into a battleground.With a great comedic performance from Platt (his character is drunk through the movie), "The Ice Harvest" brings John Cusack to the screen in prime comedic form.
Although I would have liked to see more of Randy Quaid (screen time is less than 20 minutes) and a longer cut of the movie, "The Ice Harvest" succeeded in making me laugh (mostly Platt) and keeping my attention.9/10.
Directed by Harold Ramis, this movie is reminiscent of the Coen Brothers, maybe Fargo, with a schmo in the middle of something big, and its humor, with the action taking place during a bleak, dark winter night.John Cusack makes the film for me - he is understated, a nice guy into something he's having trouble handling.
"The Ice Harvest" has all of the requisite ingredients of your classic film noir (the perfect crime, the femme fatale, a partnership undone by avarice, meaty plot twists), but it doesn't feel like a pastiche; and it's part of the movie's sense of humor that the crime goes down at Christmastime (in Wichita, no less, which is appropriate given the overall sleepy vibe) And not the bad sleepy, either.I came away from this with a smile on my face.
But it's a slippery evening in Wichita, and Charlie's way if killing the hours are likely to be trouble...This film, made from a book by Scott Phillips, resembles other wintery black comedies like "Fargo", "The big white", "In Bruges", "Fuck up", "Thin ice" and "A simple plan", but falls shirt on one level, the humor.
The action takes place in Wichita, Kansas, on Christmas Eve. Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) and Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) steal $2 million from local gangster and strip club owner Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid).
The Ice Harvest is a film noir, with a story that is worth watching, but the execution is just too slow for me to make it a good movie.
Director Harold Ramis knows how to move his talented cast around in a never-a-dull-moment adventure that no matter how bizarre the many twists become, the viewer is glued to the screen afraid to miss a moment of the convoluted plat.Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) is a lawyer for the crime mob in Wichita, Kansas informs us at the beginning that though people say there is no such thing as a perfect crime, he is about to show us one.
And probably that's what saved "Ice Harvest" for me, his charismatic, down-to-earth-but-not-really kind of guy.The film is about Charlie (Cusack) who teams up with Vic (Billy Bob) and steals a big load of money.
It was great to see John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton matched again having both been principals before in Pushing Tin. Oliver Platt was just absolutely delightfully hilarious.Wonderful movie ...
If you know the plot standards of film noir (moral ambiguity, femmes fatale, double crosses etc) then there are few surprises here.Cusack plays a mob lawyer who, with the encouragement Thornton's strip club owner, rips off his gangster boss to the tune of several million dollars but, for reasons that are only glibly explained, must hang around until the day is over.So we follow him around for his final hours in town and watch the plan go violently, and occasionally comically awry.
Don't rent it.Billy Bob Thornton, Randy Quaid, Oliver Platt and John Cusack should be ashamed of themselves and at least one of them should have told Harold Ramis this was a bad thing.
The movie starts with Cusack's character, Charlie, an lawyer committing the perfect crime stealing millions of dollar along with his partner Vic (Thornton) during Christmas Eve. But for some reason they can't leave town to avoid people's suspicion, since everybody knows them, so they decide to stay in Wichita until things get easier for them to get out.
Until such thing happen, Charlie will have to deal with an bizarre amount of problems such as follow along a drunk friend (hilariously played by Oliver Platt) who keep causing more and more trouble in all the places they go; help an old flame of his (Connie Nielsen), who's having some problems with an politician; smile to an persistent and annoying cop every time he appears on his front, suspicion of everything he does; and running away from a hit-man (Mike Starr) who's looking for him and Vic.Basically, it's a movie with Cusack trying to solve problems before putting his hands on the money and get out of Wichita.
Its plot about the complications that set in after a seemingly perfectly-executed heist, doesn't sound particularly original (and of course it isn't) but a group of totally untrustworthy characters, a series of neat twists and plenty of dark humour combine together to make this a movie that's hugely enjoyable from start to finish.On Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas, mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) and his partner-in-crime Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) successfully relieve their employer of more than $2 million.
Billy Bob Thornton and Connie Neilsen are both well-cast in their roles and Oliver Platt is outrageously funny as Charlie's friend who enjoys intoxication because it distracts him from the lack of respect and enjoyment that he derives from the rest of his life."The Ice Harvest" is well-paced, sleazy and often violent but its strongest elements are its interesting characters and its wonderful humour..
In the vein of the Coen brothers' "Fargo" and "Blood Simple," in which death and dying are all part of the fun, comes this newest release, "Ice Harvest," starring John Cusack ("High Fidelity") and Billy Bob Thornton ("Bad Santa") as a pair of inept but sincere crooks who pull off a Christmas Eve heist of $2 million in Wichita Falls, Kansas.Directed by Harold Ramis, who has helmed such comedy classics as "Caddyshack," "National Lampoon's Vacation," "Groundhog Day" and "Analyze This," this dark-humored noir picture is smart, entertaining and holds up well, despite the blood-splatter and whiplash-inducing plot twists.
Infinitely cool, twisted, post-modern and blackly comedic noir that ends up being an ideal antidote to the saccharine-overloaded bloat of sickliness that defines most festive movies.Mob lawyer Charlie (John Cusack) and his associate Vic (Billy Bob Thornton) heist two million in cash from gang boss Guerrard (Randy Quaid) on Christmas Eve. Now all they have to do is act normal and get out of town on Christmas Day. But, as is the inevitable way of such things, it's not going to be that simple.Cue cross, double-cross, duplicity, murder, violence, slapstick and some razor sharp dialogue along with a sex-on-legs femme-fatale (glacial Connie Nielsen) and Charlie's friend, and also husband of his ex wife (alcohol challenged Oliver Platt) and you have a neo-noir classic to watch as the chestnuts roast and the wine mulls.Cusack, Thornton, Platt, Nielsen and Quaid are immensely watchable and the minor characters who come and go as the film proceeds are all impressively sketched.
The Ice Harvest (2005): Dir: Harold Ramis / Cast: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Platt, Randy Quaid: Title defines the term "skating on thin ice" as two mobsters steal a large sum of cash on Christmas Eve and try to avoid the consequences.
Funny guy Harold Ramis produces and directs this dark comedy set on Christmas Eve. Charlie Arglist(John Cusack)is a mob lawyer that convinces partner-in-crime Vic(Billy Bob Thornton) it is time to lay low after stealing a little over two million dollars from his boss(Randy Quaid).
THE ICE HARVEST (2005) *** John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Platt, Randy Quaid, Mike Starr.Black Comedy For Those Not In The Holiday SpiritJohn Cusack has always been one of the few actors who merit the Gold Standard when it comes to watching a film for pure entertainment and he excels with his good-hearted average guy manner in an unlikely dark comedy with another actor who is also in the same league of criteria, Billy Bob Thrornton (both co-starred in 1999's "Pushing Tin" a sort of satirical comedy about air traffic controllers at each other's throats) and together they make a fine comic duo.The post noir plot has to do with Kansas City 'mob lawyer' Charlie Arglist (Cusack) and his acquaintance Vic Cavanaugh (Thornton) ripping off one of Charlie's clients, Bill Guerrard (Quaid), by skimming some $2M in change and heading for warmer climes then the titular weather condition that serves as a character in itself in causing things to get slippery in their grand scheme of the high life on a chilly Christmas Eve in Wichita Falls.Charlie doesn't have much luck: his wife has left him for his best friend Pete van Heuten (scene stealer Platt) who keeps turning up like a bad (drunken) penny throughout the festive evening while Charlie's doubts of the perfect crime getting gummed up as he fears his (rightful) paranoia that Bill will catch wind of their theft and finds solid evidence that he is right in the form of Bill's henchman Roy (Starr) who keeps showing up moments after Charlie has arrived at say a strip club bar he frequents.
John Cusack stars as a mob lawyer in Kansas who steals two million dollars from his boss with the help of his friend Billy Bob Thornton.