The Iceman - Blu-ray Review

'Liotta, in fact, provides the best parallel for Shannon's performance here; Henry Hill looms over this, at least in stature and tone, if not quite plot.'

There's a strange feel sometimes to Ariel Vromen's The Iceman, which might go some way to explaining why it was not quite as positively received as the original excitement around it suggested it might be.

Lead Michael Shannon strides through a commanding performance as the titular mob hitman, Richard Kuklinski, a real-life killer of Polish-background, working for mid-level Italian Mafioso, here mainly in the shape of Roy Demeo (Ray Liotta). Liotta is one of a handful of recognisable faces in roles ranging from cameos to more significant support that sometimes give The Iceman the hints it has of not quite knowing what it wanted to do; surely this should have been a character piece for Shannon? Do we really need Chris Evans in an hilarious wig, David Schwimmer with hilarious facial hair or James Franco in a scene which seems to ill-advisedly reference his wannabe-auteur status?

Vromen also gives Shannon just a few too many times where he needs to show ill-thought through angst. This guy is 'The Iceman', a terrifying, cold, emotionless presence if you've seen the real-life interviews with him, where he is shown to be even more imposing than Shannon. Scenes with Kuklinski banging his head against elevator walls and screaming to no-one at the top of the stairs on his daughter's birthday don't feel in-keeping with his character.

If that sounds as though the quality here is suspect then rest assured that there is just enough very good work here to balance those factors out. Shannon is magnetic and works well in any scene where he partners Liotta or on-screen wife Winona Ryder, this being another of the smattering of contemporary roles where the latter has cropped up and been extremely impressive. Liotta, in fact, provides the best parallel for Shannon's performance here; Henry Hill looms over this, at least in stature and tone, if not quite plot.

Elsewhere, other members of the support do fit, along with Ryder, particularly ex-Bond villain Robert Davi, who takes time out from crooning Sinatra and puts in a quietly effective performance as someone a few rungs and years further on in their ill-fated career than Demeo.

In all, it could have been tighter and Vromen's comparable inexperience in the director's chair does show, but Kuklinski's story holds your attention for nearly two hours and the director does at least make sure that you understand that you're watching a group of very evil men, rather than anti-heroes to be cheered.

By Sam Turner. Sam is editor of Film Intel, and can usually be found behind a keyboard with a cup of tea. He likes entertaining films and dislikes the other kind. He's on Google+, Twitter and several places even he doesn't yet know about.