Starring: Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder, Chris Evans, Danny Abeckaser, Ray Liotta and James Franco
Director: Ariel Vromen
The true story of notorious contract killer and family man Richard Kuklinski
The story of Richard Kuklinski first gained mainstream notoriety in 2001’s HBO documentary “The Iceman Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hitman” which was an intimate interview with the fame Kuklinski as he described his many murders as well as his intense love for his family.
Director Ariel Vromen utilizes both the Doc and Anthony Bruno’s book “The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer” to deliver a new spin on the Gangster Genre
What’s of interesting note is that Vromen bucks the traditional formats of focusing on both sides of the law or strictly focusing on a particular crime to be carried out, rather he utilizes the genre to show two distinct and compartmentalized sides of Kuklinski. Over a 20+ year span, we witness a contract killer (Kuklinski was freelance he wasn’t a mobster), on one side and the devoted father who wanted the best for his family on the other side, most importantly we see how the two worlds don’t collide for over 20 years. Does Vromen gloss over some of the uglier aspects of the Kuklinski home life like beating the crap out of his wife, yes he does. There are multiple instances that allude to Kuklinski’s less than honorable behavior, yet he was a family man who loved his family tremendously.
Michael Shannon walks tall and strong as the 6’4 300lb Kuklinski. while Shannon doesn’t carry the same weight on his frame as Kuklinski he delivers a powerful and mesmerizing performance as the remorseless killer (of particular note is the dead on mannerisms that Shannon deploys in the bookending interview scenes culled straight from the HBO doc). I can’t think of a better actor to step into Kuklinski’s shoes. Starting out with a younger Kuklinski who dabbles in underground porn distribution and falls in love with Deborah (Winona Ryder), to his time working for crime boss Roy Demeo (Ray Liotta) [who in real life was an associate of the Gambino Crime Family], through an economic downturn in the murder for hire business that caused him to team up with Mr Freezy (Chris Evans). [Of interesting note is that Kuklinski garnered the name the Iceman due to freezing his victims and disposing of their bodies much later, to throw off the time of death. A tactic which really came about from Mr Freezy, Robert Pronge is the basis of this character he went by the name of Mr Softee for being an Ice Cream Man]. To ultimately his incarceration and imprisonment for murder.
Winona holds her own against the impressive talents of Mr Shannon able to deliver the right amount of blind ignorance that a woman would have to have to not know or acknowledge what her husband did for a living. Twenty years, 100 Murders she had to know something was going on.
Vromen nails the era to a tee with New Orleans fitting in masterfully for 70’s era NJ/NY. He covers the cast in enough goatees and bad mustaches to make you feel like you stepped into a time machine. For an independent film the cast is just powerful. Evans stepped into the role and mustache of Mr Freezy when original star James Franco had a scheduling conflict yet Franco like the material so much that he makes a cameo in a scene where Kuklinski questions his faith [The real Kuklinski actually had a slight regret for the way he handled the situation]. There is even an unrecognizable David Schwimmer who rocks a stache reminiscent of the flash back scenes in Friends. Even the supporting player’s standout, Danny Abeckaser went method and gained twenty pounds to play Kuklinskis best friend Dino Lapron who is the barometer of how far Kuklinski has come financially from the killing business.
For a film about a contract killer it is surprisingly not as violent as I anticipated, for the body count Kuklinski notched this could have been an unforgiving bloodbath. Yet Vromen strikes a subtle balance between Kuklinski’s work life and Family life which for the most part never collided. It’s truly amazing how remorseless and brazen Kuklinski was, yet given his motive of wanting to take care of his family you almost empathize with him. The facts are right there and no indictment is made, it’s up to the viewer to decide if Kuklinski was strictly a monster or a provider with a limited skill set that would do whatever it took to take care of his family.
Many people are going to find fault with the Iceman that it doesn’t take a hard enough stance on Kuklinski. That it doesn’t show how awful a father he was at times. It doesn’t show enough about how they caught him. That lack of information is what makes the film work. It isn’t about that, it’s about delivering the story with phenomenal acting and leaving it up to the viewer to decide.
Grade – 92
