The Iceman is a character study of the hitman Richard Kuklinski.
It turns the notorious serial killer for hire into damaged goods, the wise guy into a family guy.
A kid kicked the box and a hand fell out.
That park was the setting of my first short story.
The case was never solved.
His niece lived next door to Richard Kuklinski, across the street from a friend of mine.
The man said hed killed people and in gruesome ways.
My friend only thought he was joking for a word or two and then believed the matter-of-fact descriptions.
On Route 46, there used to be a great truck stop called Harrys Corner.
It was there for years.
One day it was gone.
I ate hot dogs on it.
Richard Kuklinski perfected the art of killing.
Raised in Jersey City, he endured abusive parents, nuns, principals and neighborhood bullies.
His first kill was a gang leader in the projects near where Kuklinski lived.
He also burned an off-duty cop in his car after an abusive game of pool.
He was equally lethal with a gun, knife, noose, icepick or poison.
Kuklinski met quite a few sociopaths, he could have had a TV series with psychopath of the week.
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Steppenwolf Theatre Company graduate Michael Shannon is a wonder.
I first noticed him as the pious but corruptible Agent Van Elder in the HBO seriesBoardwalk Empire.
His harsh visage laid every insecurity bare and exposed.
His muted role as a reluctant visionary in the 2011 apocalypse teaserTake Sheltershowed the tortured ambiguity of true faith.
Shannon oozed sleaze and a maniacal energy as rock agent Kim Fowley inThe Runaways.
Kuklinski has no fear because he was raised by violence and is so near and dear to death.
He lets Marty Freeman (James Franco) pray to god to stop him before he plugs him.
Go on, tell him to come down and stop me.
Im not feeling nothing.
Nothing at all, he says as the prayers have no effect.
Guess god was busy.
Shannons performance turnsThe Icemaninto a character study more than a gangster movie.
It has its gore and gets the names right, but Richard is shown more as damaged than demented.
Shannon gives Kuklinski a humanity that was illusory in the HBO interview documentary a few years ago.
He also captures his shy charm and enjoyment of his work.
Kuklinski dances into one of his hits to the beat of Blondies Heart of Glass.
He looks like he likes to dance.
Later, Kuklinski will write a poem for his daughters sweet sixteen birthday party.
I love Winona Ryder.
Here, Ryder plays Deborah Kuklinski, the oblivious wife.
Later, Ryder will radiate betrayal as she watches her husbands life unfold in court.
Deborah only endures two flashes of the Iceman in the movie.
That is the heart of the movie.
Kuklinskis wife and daughters is the only thing he cares about in his insular world.
Whatever he does for them is alright because he does it for them.
Hed probably do it anyway, but it makes him more likeable that he does it for them.
This Iceman was a guy whod kill bums on the West Side Highway just to see how they died.
It is because DeMeo was equally murder hungry.
DeMeo was ruthless, hungry but ultimately forever frustrated from his lifelong goal, to be a made guy.
Ray Liotta is a striking DeMeo.
He is the only presence that could cow the cold Polack.
He also carves a mean corpse.
Director Ariel Vromen captures the era and the locales with a comfortable accuracy.
The Gemini Lounge, where Roy DeMeo holds murderous court, looks a little bigger than I remember it.
Its now the Flatlands Church of God.
Kuklinski is living at the mouth of a volcano that Vromen only hints at.
The AMC Loews Lincoln Square theater has a long-ass escalator.
They must have been coming out of the noon showing of the newIronman.
He told his friend that they should have seen that instead.
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Rating:
3.5 out of 5
