Movie: The Iceman

The Iceman: an O’Neill play it is not.  Rather, this movie is based upon the true story of a mob contract killer named Richard Kuklinski.  The movie is worth seeing just to partake in the performance by Michael Shannon as Kuklinski.  When the movie opens, Kuklinski is a shy individual on a date with a waitress named Deborah, played by Winona Ryder.  They are sitting at a New Jersey diner - timeline approximately 1960 -  and she asks him what he does for a living.  He answers, “I dub cartoons for Disney”.  The answer had some truth but the real story was that he dubbed porn for the mob.  When the mob decides to close the film lab, Kuklinski is offered a new position following an “interview” with a small time crime boss played by Ray Liotta in which Kuklinski makes a favorable impression when he’s not blinking as a gun is pointed at him.  The career move is to that of a paid assassin.  In real life, Kuklinski reportedly killed over 100 people.  The character and the movie, however, are more complex than just watching a killer do his job.  Kuklinski was a loving family man whose wife (Deborah) and two daughters thought he was a Wall Street trader.  Deborah was told that the film lab had closed.  By the time Kuklinski was arrested in 1986, shortly after his oldest girl turned 16, we have watched a man living two lives and operating on a very short fuse.  The director, Ariel Vromen, gives us only two short scenes to explain Kuklinski; one involves his brother who is to be tried on an anger murder charge, and the second is a very brief scene showing Kuklinski being severely beaten by his father.  The movie implies that as a result of the violence he suffered as a child, Kuklinski had two personalities.  Total movie time for both scenes is less than five minutes and they are the only explanation given for Kuklinski’s behavior.  The film is violent and one scene, which explains Kuklinski’s nickname, Iceman, will remind you of Showtime’s Dexter.  The joint scenes with “Captain America”, another mob killer played by Chris Evans, are marvelous.  I did not realize who the ice cream killer was until the credits.  Liotta has played his role in this movie before but new respect for Evans.  A title card at the end of the end of the 104 minute movie tells us that Kuklinski died in prison in 2006 and never saw his kids after his conviction.  For this man, not seeing his children was a greater penalty than death.  Personally, I wonder how either daughter could ever trust a male after learning the truth about their father.  This is an excellent crime drama with superb acting.  These are crime characters you can believe.  And like an O’Neill play, this movie raises real questions about the human condition.  Because of the violence (short scenes but a couple are graphic) this film is not for everyone, but if you enjoy the crime film genre, the excellent acting makes Iceman a must see.