I am not a great fan of ‘true crime’ stories, books, or films. And then, there are exceptions. The Iceman directed by Ariel Vromen is one of them, and I will try to shortly explain why it succeeds in my opinion to do better than many of other similar films (the genre is very popular in American cinema).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1491044
Richard Kuklinski was a real person. He was a paid hitman in the service of the mob, who by the time he was caught in 1986 had allegedly more than 100 people murdered on his record. The amazing thing was that he succeeded to keep his real ‘profession’ and source of income hidden from his ‘normative’ family for more than 20 years, living a comfortable life in the suburbs. His beautiful wife and two daughters never guessed the real person that he was. Split personality? Possibly – an extreme case anyway.
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The film works well on many plans. First of all this is due to Michael Shannon, an actor with many supporting roles in his record, who gets here the opportunity to bring to screen a character who seems to care only about his family with no apparent feelings about other people, not even respect for their lives. Yet, his first mistake and hesitation that triggers his downfall is the hesitation to kill the teenager young girl who witnessed one of his crime, maybe because she reminded him about his daughters. The rest of the supporting cast is excellent as well, with Winona Ryder as his unsuspecting wife and Ray Liotta as the mob chief who hires him to part ways later. There is little explanation about the background and motives of his deranged and criminal behavior. The references to his brother and one flashback of his childhood may be considered insufficient, but actually I believe that it’s better so. Too much explanation would have spoiled the chilling effect of being exposed as viewers to his dark personality and deeds. As it stays, it’s a study in crime with enough details to make it hard too forget, and enough non-clarity to leave it open to interpretation from viewers.