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Neither rain nor ice nor bad reviews could keep me from checking out the latest John Cusack movie. Cusack has been one of my favorite actors since the first time I saw Better Off Dead—so if he’s in it, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll see it. This time, in fact, I even showed up at the theater with what I’m pretty sure was a slight fever. I probably infected a few people while I was there, but that didn’t really matter to me.
Cusack stars as Charlie Arglist, a spineless, somewhat neurotic Wichita mob lawyer who—along with his sleazy partner, Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton)—has just pulled off the perfect Christmas Eve crime. Charlie and Vic managed to steal $2 million from mob boss Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid), and now all they’ve got to do is stay cool for a few hours and wait out the ice storm that’s hit Wichita. Then they can leave town for good.
Unfortunately, Charlie’s not the best actor—and he’s having a hard time hiding his excitement. He’s running around town spreading unusual amounts of joy to all the strippers at the local mob-run strip clubs. And people are starting to notice—like club owner Renata (Connie Nielson), who might be persuaded to run away with him (and the money), and his drunk friend Pete (Oliver Platt), who doesn’t even need $2 million to convince him to leave his bitter wife (who also happens to be Charlie’s ex-wife) behind. But when Guerrard’s henchman starts looking for him, Charlie’s suddenly no so sure that he’ll be able to get out of town with his life—not to mention the money.
Was The Ice Harvest worth going to the theater sick? Not really. In theory, it was a decent movie. The acting isn’t bad at all. I may be biased toward Cusack, but I’ve never really been a fan of Thornton—and I really liked him in this movie. And Oliver Platt steals the show as Pete, whose drunken antics add some goofiness to the movie’s dark humor. Besides that, the story has plenty of action and plenty of humor. But it’s all been done before. The plot is one that’s been done over and over—and The Ice Harvest doesn’t add anything new to the story. Not only that, but some parts of the story just didn’t seem to fit. They could have been cut, but that would have cut down the movie’s already short 88-minute runtime.
So unless you’re a big John Cusack fan (or a Billy Bob Thornton fan…or an Oliver Platt fan, for that matter), you’re not really missing much if you miss The Ice Harvest.
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