*½/****
directed by Ariel Vroman
by Bill Chambers Although The Iceman proves that a movie cannot get by on Michael Shannon's dark charisma alone, Shannon has reached that point in his
career where his casting supplies the lion's share of subtext. Hence, a line like
"I dub cartoons for Disney"--uttered not two minutes into the film,
before there's enough context for it to be a joke or a lie--induces titters of
recognition. Of course, most will know going in that Shannon's playing
real-life contract killer Richard Kuklinski, who's thought to have dispatched
over 100 people, professionally-speaking. In The Iceman, the film
version of his life, smut-bootlegger Kuklinski starts a family with winsome
Barbara (a baby-talky Winona Ryder) at the same time mobster Roy DeMeo (Ray
Liotta) makes him an enforcer. He keeps Barbara in the dark about his new
profession (his old one, too), telling her he's a stockbroker to explain the
conspicuous infusions of cash; by the time their angelic daughters are in
middle-school, he's settled comfortably into the schizoid role of
suburban-dad-slash-serial-killer. Eventually, he sub-contracts himself out to
Pronge (Chris Evans, so skeevy I mistook him for Bradley Cooper), a free agent
who operates out of a Mr. Softee truck and gives Kuklinski the idea to freeze
his victims, and thus his eponymous nickname.