TIFF Review- The Iceman

Logline: The true story of Richard Kuklinski, the notorious contract killer and family man.

Cast: Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Winona Ryder, Ray Liotta, James Franco, David Schwimmer, Stephen Dorff

Directed by: Ariel Vromen

Please excuse the smaller font used today - I tried something different and I didn't like it much. It will be fixed for tomorrow's review.

Soooooo, I was fortunate enough to receive a ticket to The Iceman for my birthday. In case you are unaware, this movie doesn't have a release date just yet, and I watched it at the Toronto International Film Festival. I'm ashamed to say this was my first TIFF day - even though I consider myself a huge movie fan. I loved every minute of the experience & I had an awesome day. If you live around the area I highly suggest seeing a film there. It was pretty sweet staying and listening to a Question & Answer session with director Ariel Vromen. He actually went to law school and made money DJing parties. Now he's made this. Pretty inspiring actually.

P.S. Tomorrow I will be reviewing To The Wonder - I'm going to need some time to think about that one.

Summary

I managed to watched a 45 minute documentary on Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski before watching the movie because I find this type of stuff really interesting. For those who don't know, The Iceman was a brutal contract killer. He was tied in with the mob and killed on his own time as well. He's widely known for freezing bodies to hide the date of death of his victims, hence the nickname. The funny thing about him was, his wife and children had no idea. At home he was a nice family man and they believed he worked at the bank dealing with inflation changes. He killed well over 100 people and was known for having no feeling towards the murders of his victims.

It took me a few scenes to realize this was Chris Evans (Captain America)

Review

The movie really nailed the character of Richard Kuklinski. Michael Shannon was pretty much perfect and this is his best performance to date bar none. It's really hard to believe just 10 years ago in '02 this guy played Greg Buehl in 8 Mile opposite Eminem (not knocking 8 Mile, just saying he had a really small part - I actually love the movie). He's widely known for his work in Boardwalk Empire, but has gained recognition in movies like Take Shelter, Premium Rush, and Revolutionary Road. He's slated to be General Zod in the next Superman flick Man of Steel and after watching this I'd imagine he has a very bright future ahead of him. Not often does an actor carry a story the way he did here.

The Iceman is a biopic, meaning it's the true story of Richard Kuklinski's life. I went into it without any expectations of the film following typical plot structure. Like I've said before in many of my reviews, if the film is there to serve a purpose it may be excusable to drop the basics and capture that raw emotion and reality needed to tell the story. What the film lacks in storytelling, it makes up for in capturing the real events that took place in Kuklinski's life, all in which are quite the spectacle. In the documentary there is a segment where he describes his killings and he regretfully tells of how one of his murders he wishes he never did. I'm sooooooooo glad they put this into the movie. He has a guy praying and begging for his life - he stops before he kills him and asks: do you really think God is going to come save you? Let's see - he sits down and waits for awhile, then gets back up and says, God must not care about you - and he kills him. This defined The Iceman for me. In the documentary this is exactly the moment where I knew what this guy was all about. Stone cold. They did this really well.

However, I really wished they would have went more into detail about some of the killings he committed. If you look him up, he has some really BRUTAL methods of killing people. He was also known for his use of cyanide, but he only kills someone with it once in the film. I guess I'm being picky, but oh well. I did enjoy the movie, every actor delivered convincingly, and the movie kept me intrigued for its entirety.

Is it possible Winona Ryder looks better than she did 10 years ago?

Topic of the Day

Since it is TIFF week and I did get a chance to listen to the director speak, I've chosen to divert from learning aspect about the basics of filmmaking today and reiterate some of the questions Ariel Vromen was asked.

He noted that originally he wrote the screenplay with Liev Schreiber in mind to play Richard Kuklinski. The studio was then thinking about offering the role to Sylvester Stallone after negotiations with him didn't work out. Eventually Vromen got to see Michael Shannon do a screening for the part and he admittedly said he was obsessed with his work prior, especially his acting in Revolutionary Road. He was pretty sold on his screening and the casting of him then led to the casting of James Franco as they're both good friends and wanted to work together.

Unfortunately, James Franco's father passed before filming had begun and his schedule was severely conflicted with the filming of Oz: the Great and Powerful, so he almost had to drop out completely. He said he still wanted to stay on and film a minor role though, so they put him in one scene and Kuklinski finds him. Chris Evans then took the lead role that Franco was originally slated for. 

He said that he took inspiration from the HBO documentary and the out-takes from it. He stated, and this was something I pointed out to a friend, that the last image and statement of the movie is taken directly from the documentary word for word. What drew him close to Kuklinski was the fact that he appeared to be a stone cold emotionless guy, but he was able to love a family with all of his heart at the same time. 

He also said the moral center of the story was that at home we can be who we want to be and feel safe about it, but outside of home counts just as much. In the case of Richard Kuklinski, he never managed to respect the world as he did his own family and he paid severe consequences for it, so it's important to treat everyone as you would your own family.

Consensus

The Iceman is a strong biopic that is powered by the electric performance delivered by Michael Shannon. Given that this is a story of true events, the regular aspects of storytelling were altered and instead the movie focused on raw emotions and the reality of Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski's life. A contract killer and a true family man. It's a really well done film and Shannon's acting elevates it above that status.

7.7/10