Genre: Crime, Thriller, Drama, Comedy
Tagline: Thick Thieves. Thin Ice.
Plot: It's Christmas Eve in rainy, icebound Wichita, Kansas, and this year Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) just might have something to celebrate. Charlie, an attorney for the sleazy businesses of Wichita, and his unsavory associate, the steely Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton), have just successfully embezzled $2,l47,000 from Kansas City boss Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid).Even so, the real prize for Charlie would be the stunning Renata (Connie Nielsen), who runs the Sweet Cage strip club. Charlie's fondest Christmas wish is to slip out of town with Renata. But, as daylight fades and a storm whirls, everyone from Charlie's drinking buddy Pete Van Heuten (Oliver Platt) to the local police begin to wonder just what exactly is in Charlie's Christmas stocking. For Charlie, the 12 hours of Christmas Eve are filled with nonstop twists and turns, both on the ice and
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 Discussion forum for this movie
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 Despite its brevity, it seems padded, with all sorts of irrelevant scenes and dead-end subplots taking up time. It's hard to figure out who the target audience is, since serviceable-yet-unremarkable B-movies rarely do much business. 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.  --James Berardinelli (ReelViews)
Watch the trailer for the best parts of “The Ice Harvest” and then go rent “The Ref” if you really want to see a truly funny dark Christmas comedy. Although it’s advertised as a comedy, “The Ice Harvest” is anything but. What it is is a disjointed mess full of improbable situations and unpleasant characters. It's just pointless. D--Rebecca Murray (About.com)
“The Ice Harvest” isn’t a film for everyone–noir fans may not appreciate the humor while those in the mood for a goofy comedy may be put off by the bleak characters and the nasty levels of violence that occasionally crop up. It isn’t even a great film but it is one that is reasonably intelligent and more than reasonably entertaining...  --Peter Sobczynski (eFilmCritic.com)
Like so many films based on "outrageous" ideas, it loses steam once the novelty of it has worn off. On the other hand, it does impart some valuable information along the way on the body-storage capacity of a Mercedes. Turns out it's a lot more than you'dthink. B--Eric D. Snider (EricDSnider.com)
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| Written by |
| Robert Benton
Bonnie and Clyde, There Was a Crooked Man..., Kramer vs. Kramer |
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